Backwater Planet
by Vivian Hale
Summary: Two femmes land on earth, to find they are the first of many to answer Optimus Prime's beacon. Will they find more than they bargained for? Very OC oriented and rated T for violence, just in case.  Incomplete, Discontinued
1. Entry

Entry

Excitement surged through Wildstrike's wires as her space pod broke through the atmosphere. What would Earth be like? Would she know any of the Autobots there besides the leader, Optimus Prime? Her questions would soon be answered.

The pod slammed into the forest near a small town in California, with the orange and black Autobot inside. Wild crept out of the destroyed and flaming wreckage of the pod and scanned the area. No sign of life aside from small furry and feathered creatures. Where was Saberquake?

She clicked on her radio to send a signal to Prime. "Prime, this is Wildstrike requesting information and maps to the Earth base." She, Wildstrike, was speaking to _the leader_. She had only talked to him once. The silence from the radio confused her, until the realization slammed into her processor. Her radio had been broken from the impact of the pod and the earth.

A second pod slammed into the ground near Wildstrike and a red, white and black Autobot crawled out. She observed the flames of her pod a moment before turning to Wild and grinning. The spikes at the side of her head stood at attention and her bi-colored eyes sparkled in the firelight.

Abruptly, she glanced around and growled before settling down. "So what's busted on you?" she asked, in a mildly dry tone, as was usual. Her HUD (heads-up-display) was showing a broken radio, and several minor breaks elsewhere, as well as energy levels at about fifty percent. Their trip to earth hadn't been kind to them.

"My radio," Wild scowled, checking her own HUD, irritation showing in her blue optics, "How about yours?" She hoped at least one of their radios was working. If not, they were in deep trouble. Low energy, broken radios, and no idea where the Earth base was was a bad omen to Wild. At least she had her friend, Saberquake.  
>She jumped when she heard a car pass nearby, but she quickly scanned the Earth vehicle. It would be better stay incognito. She studied the design and grinned. That was a pretty sweet ride, even if it wasn't Cybertronian. Relaxing, she waited for Saber's answer.<p>

Saber studied her HUD for a long time, checking this and that and cataloging the various injuries. Finally she turned to Wildstrike.

"How slagged are we if my radio is broken too?" she asked, grinning. Saber was always like that, grinning for no particular reason that anyone could see. She scanned a second car that passed by and relaxed as her armor took the shape of it. Being Cybertronian, she had the instinct to fit in, to hide in a common form among the locals. Assuming there were some around here. All she could see was vegetation and a road of some sort.

Wild groaned, "Pretty slagged. Primus, how are we going to get to the base?" They should have gotten the directions before crashing, but it was too late now. She took a scan of the area and searched for a link to the base, but she realized it was too secure to get a message to them. She sighed again.

"So do we start looking? Last I heard, the base was somewhere northeast of here," Wild asked and explained at the same time.

Saber grinned again, enjoying being somewhat off the grid in friendly territory for once. "Sure," she said, and tested out her transformation. She fell into her car mode, something sleek and pretty that she didn't have a name for yet. Maybe she could research later.

Wild also transformed, stretched a bit and relaxed. "Nice and roomy," she half purred as she led the way onto the road leading northeast. At least she didn't have to do any fighting here.

Saber sighed and stretched before rolling out onto the road. "Drives good," she called back to Wild. "I can't wait to get to base and go into recharge somewhere," she added. "I was sick of that stupid moon and sleeping in the dust."

"Anything is better than moon dust stuck in your gears," Wild agreed, and a thought suddenly occurred to her, "Wait, are there any other femmes back at base? I got the impression that we may be the first..."

Saber snorted. "Course we're the first. Femmes are a rare species," she replied.

"You're telling the femme with two other sisters," Wild retorted dryly, "But I believe we were the closest to Earth. They are farther out, possibly out of this solar system."

"Well, I'm just happy there are seekers around here somewhere. I can stalk them some more," Saber grinned. Saber didn't really stalk them of course, but she did enjoy watching them fly from a safe distance.

Wild chuckled, "Have fun with that. I may join you on a few occasions, but I'd rather not draw too much attention." Wild enjoyed watching them fly, but not when they were shooting at her at the same time.

Saber didn't care either way. She had been fascinated by the jets even as a sparkling and was happy to be anywhere they were at, even if she was ripping they're lovely wings off at the same time. Such messy, messy fun.

Wild began to get a signal from the direction they were heading, "Looks like we got the right area. We're almost there." Wild grinned. She couldn't wait to be around more Bots. It meant making new friends.

Saber didn't get the signal. Her radio was so broken she would be surprised if it picked up dust, so she was content to agree with Wild and blindly follow along. "Beds," she sighed. "I can be_ lazy_ again..." she muttered.

"Wonderful beds...I may recharge a week just for that..." Wild yawned, "Oh, look, over there. Big warehouse building, bet that's it!" She bounced with a tiny bit of excitement. An actual home.

Saber squinted at the building. "Considering that appears to Prime waiting for us, I would say yes. Slag it, there's Ratchet," Saber growled, and then started in on her mad rant against all doctors, especially Ratchet. Though she did mentally apologize for bad-mouthing Ratchet. The mech was practically her adopted father at this point.

Wild merely grinned and then spotted someone she didn't think she would see again. The DJ at one of the most popular stations in Iacon, Jazz? She faintly remembered helping out and singing with her sisters there when they were still sparklings.

Jazz was bouncing excitedly on his feet as the two femmes drove up, and he even waved a little. Saber grinned, and glanced at Wild. "I heard he's nice," she commented.

"Hush you," Wild muttered before transforming and stretching a bit. She definitely wasn't used to this alt-form, but it was mostly comfy. She grinned at Jazz and gave him a lazy salute before looking to Prime.

Prime smiled at her, then Saber as she drove up beside Wild and transformed as well. Jazz looked thoroughly excited, and Ironhide, who had been off waiting in the shadows somewhere didn't really look especially happy but he wasn't scowling either.

Wild glanced at Jazz again, an amused expression turning up the corners of her mouth. What was so exciting about two femmes? _Well, I suppose the greater number of people coming helps. _

Jazz simply smiled and waved. "Nice to see ya!" he grinned.

Just as Prime was about to start some sort of speech, Ratchet narrowed his eyes at Saber.

"Exactly how long have you had that knife wound on your arm?" he growled. Saber grinned at him and took two steps back. She had picked that up awhile ago and simply left it after Wild had stopped the bleeding. It didn't bother her, and she didn't feel like having it messed with.

"How about we talk about my eyes instead? They're still two different colors," she pathetically attempted to change the subject to her one blue and one red eye, the latter of which had come with some nasty 'Con programming that had been messing with her mind since the start of the war. Ratchet wasn't having any of it though, and yanked Saber away to look at her.

"Carry on, Prime," he called, "Saber can hear you."

Said Autobot had her antenna lying flat against her head and was growling a bit as Ratchet studied her.

Prime sighed and looked back at Wild. "Well then... welcome to our little base."

_Ever the doctor, _Wild mused to herself at Ratchet's interruption. She hoped she had done alright on the knife wound. Her parents had been doctors back on Cybertron, so she had picked up very basic treatments. Then when the war had started, she learned a few more things by watching the medics, but I wasn't enough to do major surgery by any means.

"It's good to be here," Wild smiled up at Prime, "Sorry I couldn't exactly radio you, mine is down."

"That will be taken care of," Ratchet muttered as he cleaned up Sabers wound. Saber had resigned herself to standing quietly, and gave Wild a 'help me' look before turning to Prime.

"Mine was too," she said. "But it's good to be here," she smiled. Prime nodded and smiled at them both.

"It's good to have you both here. When Ratchet's done with you both, I can send you both maps of the base and give you your tablets," he informed them.

"Sure thing," Saber replied before giving a sharp growl to Ratchet and yanking her arm away. "Stop," she snarled.

"No. You stop," Ratchet snarled back.

Wild sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, "Alright, thank you Prime." She couldn't wait to get through that and just relax. It had been a long time since she had seen something somewhat resembling home.

Saber didn't make any move to thank Prime. She was too busy snarling at Ratchet. Ironhide glared at her from his place in the shadows, and Jazz looked a bit confused.

"It's not so bad, Saberquake, just let him finish up," he grinned, trying to be friendly. For his effort, he received a vicious snarl.

"Saber," Prime called firmly to her. Saber glanced at him and was instantly calm.

"Sir," she muttered, and let Ratchet continue.

"How'd ya do that?" Jazz asked, curious. Prime shrugged.

"That's how Ratchet said to handle her," he replied.

"I'm right here," Saber snipped.

A faint grin flickered on Wild's face, "Don't worry about it Jazz. Saber is Saber. Not everyone is a big fan of medics." She shrugged. She knew of plenty of people who didn't like doctors, being the daughter of a pair herself.

"There, finished, now go away and meet me in medbay with your friend there," Ratchet huffed, and released a very grateful Saber, who hurried over to Wild's side, and more or less hid behind her. Considering she was taller then her friend, it didn't work very well.

Jazz grinned good-naturedly at them as Ratchet walked off to medbay. Prime excused himself as well and followed Ratchet, trusting his soldiers to take care of themselves.

"So I guess you guys know each other pretty well?" Jazz asked.

"Half-con," muttered Ironhide, following after Ratchet. Saber growled after him.

Wild rolled her optics at Ironhide's comment and turned to Jazz, "We've known each other for a long time." _But because of Saber's Con eye, she doesn't remember_, she added to herself with a sigh. At least she had found her friend again.

Jazz rolled his optics at 'Hide before turning back to the femmes and grinning again. "Well that's good; at least you got to stick together. I'm still waiting on Prowl, wherever he went off to," Jazz replied cheerfully. Saber was starting to get the impression of an ever cheerful turbo-hound, and she messaged Wild as much.

Wild snickered and added on her message back that even 'ever cheerful turbo-hounds' could pack a nasty bite.

"I'm sure everyone is working on heading here, after that beacon Prime sent out. We were the closest though," Wild grinned, "My sisters are much further out, last I heard of them."

"Seems everyone's much further out," Jazz sighed, "I hope they all make it." Saber nodded, and managed a smile for Jazz.

"I'm pretty sure they will," Wild replied reassuringly, "I'm not the toughest Bot out there, so if I made it here, I'm sure they will."

Jazz nodded, "Well, better let you go see Ratch. See you around!" Saber nodded back, and perked up her antenna a bit.

"See you," she replied.

Wild gave him a lazy salute again with a smile, "See ya later DJ." She quickly headed toward med bay with a grin. She couldn't resist. She had called him that back in Iacon too.

Saber followed after Wild, grinning. "Did you catch the surprised look on his face?" she whispered.

"No I didn't," Wild snickered, "But I can imagine." She glanced back to see if he still had the expression on his face. Jazz wasn't even there anymore. He had apparently moved on to whatever he had to do and taken his surprise with him.

"What kind of surprise did it look like?" Wild grinned as she walked into med bay. She would see him around anyway, and she would be able to see if she called him that again.

Saber thought for a moment. "Pleasantly," she finally decided. "I'm assuming the big room full of torture devices is medbay?" she asked, studying a room that looked like part laboratory, part hospital.

"Indeed," Ratchet said from behind them. "I suggest getting inside and doing as I say until I say not to."

Saber sighed and walked inside, then sat at one of the large examination tables. She supposed they could be surgery beds too, depending. "Yes, Pops," she muttered.

-0-

Vivi- I will continue to update this if there is any interest, since this is basically a back story to the OCs that appear throughout Dodge. Saberquake belongs to Athena. Thank you! (:


	2. BAM! Memories

BAM! Memories…

Wild studied the medbay. Some items faintly reminded her of her parents, causing a slight tinge of sadness. Her parents had been neutral to the day they died. They had been doctors, not soldiers. Wild had been neutral once. That was before she saw the atrocities the unchecked Decepticons committed on Neutrals. She had dreamed of being a doctor one day too. That had been stalled by the war. Maybe she could still be a medic…

-0-

"_Dani, I wanna be like you when I grow up!" she chirped up at the blue and purple femme. She was immediately scooped up and cuddled, causing her to coo. _

"_Is that so sparklet?" her mother, Lunarmist, grinned._

"_Yeah, I wanna be a doct'r," Wild whistled happily. Her older sister, Electrostar, walked in on steadier feet, now a youngling, but not too much older than Wild._

"_I want to fix problems," Star stated with a matter of fact tone, "Like math."_

"_So you would like to be a teacher?" Electrostrike, their opi, walked in._

"_Oh no! I want to be a…an accountant," Star nodded emphatically._

"_Want play," Lunarstorm, their youngest and most active sister piped up. She gave a belly laugh when Electrostrike tickled her tummy._

"_Of course you do Loony," Strike grinned, "Now remember, enjoy being young while you can. You'll be grown soon enough, but have fun now and don't worry. That's our job as parents."_

"_Yes opi!" the youngsters chorused cheerfully. Star went back to her puzzle soon after, and Luna continued her tickle fight with her Opi. Wild on the other hand studied her sisters and smiled happily from her dani's arms. She would make sure her sisters stayed healthy when she was big, that was for sure._

-0-

"_Hey Wild! Didja get the assignment? I kind of missed it…" Luna trailed off sheepishly._

"_How'd you manage that?" Wild came up beside her sister, "Were you sleeping in the back of the class?"_

"_Yeah…" the chagrined reply came. Wild chuckled at that. She knew Luna had stayed up late chatting with some boy that had been next door until he moved. _

_Star sighed as she walked up, "It's page 142 on the data pad, problems one through fifty."_

"_Aw thanks Starry! I woulda been lost without you!" Luna claimed dramatically. _

"_You can drop the dramatics and get some sleep to thank me," Star snorted, "Warp doesn't need to know every aspect of your life."_

"_He does not!"_

"_Whatever."_

"_Star… Luna…" Wild gently nudged between them, "Chill."_

_Star just sighed and let it go, leading the way to the bus. Luna on the other hand huffed and grumbled under her breath about being just fine and not needing to chill. Wild grinned and shook her head. Sometimes, her sisters had a hard time getting along. This was one of them. That was what she was there for, to keep the peace._

-0-

_An explosion rocked the ground, causing Wildstrike to flail a bit with her hands before steadying. That had been too close for comfort. She stared outside as another Con dropped an explosive on an empty home. What was the point in it? Didn't they know they could harm a family that supported them? Sometimes it was all she could do to just help the ones that were injured. Most of the Cons had big attitudes. And they tried to tell her who she could and couldn't fix. She wasn't working for them. She just wanted to help those who were hurt because idiots decided fighting was a better option than working it out. No, she didn't care who started it. She had heard varied reports from all sides._

_Then she heard the scream from the other room. Her mother's scream. She peeked in and horror swept over her features. Both her parents lay dead on the floor, energon flowing from wounds. Their sparks were extinguished by the merciless hands of the Con that stood there, grinning. Her parents had _fixed_ that monster._

"_Where is that daughter these Neutrals had?" he chuckled, no sorrow over what he had done showed, "She would make a good medic for us."_

_There was no time to cry. She had to get out of there. Wild quickly took the other door. There was no way she was going to join the Cons. There was no way she was going to die without a fight either._

"_Hey!" The Con had heard her running steps and opened fire. Wild ducked and rolled, thankful for the self defense classes she had taken when she was younger. She had to get out of this Con infested town. That, and find the Autobots. She looked around quickly before taking off into a side street, transforming and speeding off in her alt-form._

_She heard more explosions and gunfire, but she wasn't going back. Her parents could no longer say the Cons deserved fixing just as much as the Autobots. Out of all the reports, she hadn't heard of any of _them _razing a town to take out Neutrals and get recruits._

_A broken sob came from her vocalizer. Her parents were gone. They would be among countless others. Cold. Grey. Dead. All for nothing. She went silent as she continued speeding away. Crying wouldn't do any good. They would be happier in the Matrix anyway, instead of this war torn planet._

-0-

Wild took a deep breath, a few tears creeping down her cheeks. She hadn't let herself cry much. She hadn't let herself dwell on her parents' death. The med bay suddenly reminded her way too much of the place her parents had worked. She trembled a tiny bit, and then quickly hurried out. She had to deal with it now and get it over with. She couldn't cry every time she went into med bay. People would accuse Ratchet of scaring her. A short laugh brought her about. It was going to be okay. After all, at one point, her parents had worked with him. He had helped her and Saber when they were nearly dead from lack of energon and rest. A small smile chased away the rest of her sadness. She had her sisters still. They were on their way; she could feel it as their bonds got stronger. She had her family. Her parents had succeeded in teaching them that family was the most important thing, aside from friends.

Ratchet allowed Saber to slip out to comfort her friend. "You need to work this out, Wild?" she asked. "I remember too. It's not... easy..." she sighed as she remembered her own past.

-0-

Athena: holy chickens this came along fast. Have three introductory chapters as a treat...

Vivi: No kidding… wow… :O :D


	3. A Different Light

A Different Light

Rubble was not kind to youngling armor.

This was the first thing Saber decided as she pulled herself up out of her destroyed house.

The second thing she decided was that a bleeding, broken optic and several cuts, scrapes, and what not, were not fun, so why on earth did anyone ever want to become a soldier someday? She had decided that her parent's job as store-keepers of a small used-and-new parts store sounded just fine to her. She had plenty of fun-filled memories from the store, such as building Optimus Prime and Megatron and little Seekers out of old, unusable parts. Coughing, she shoved more rubble away to make sitting down more comfortable. "Danni?" she croaked, her voice staticy. No one answered. Maybe she just wasn't loud enough. Her Danni was hard of hearing sometimes, so was Opi. She just had to call louder and rattle around some stuff. Right? "Danni!" she barked, starting to dig around. "Opi!"

No one was answering. Why? Why wouldn't they answer? "Danni! Danni! Opi! Someone! Answer me! _Now!"_ She put an especially demanding tone on the "now" knowing it annoyed her parents. They always answered to that, if just to yell at her to stop it. Especially if her little brother...

She stopped digging and shouting. "The school..." she whispered. She lifted her head and looked across the practically leveled landscape. The school should be there. Yet it wasn't. "Danni!" she shrieked. "Help me! You gotta help me find Night, Danni!" Her vents hitched and she dug desperately around the house-rubble. Fluid ran down her face and she realized she was crying. When that had started she didn't know, but it had to stop. She would find Danni and Opi and Night.

And she wouldn't cry.

About a cycle later, she was sitting on a large, brick-like, piece of metal that might have been part of a building. She was exhausted, and she hadn't found her parents. There was too much house. Eventually she had gotten desperate and run up and down the street shouting and sobbing when horrible sight stopped her cold. It was one, large hand peeking out of a different houses rubble. It was grey and cold.

Dead.

And with that Saber had finally accepted what her spark had been trying to tell her all along. Danni and Opi weren't here. She, her busted eye, and her other damaged systems were all alone in the world. It was a depressing thought that called for mostly sitting around and moping. When that got old, and her HUD decided to chirp at her about her eye and her low energy levels, she moved on to cleaning herself up as best she could. The shards of her old eye had to be cleaned out, as well as other sorts of shrapnel from various places on her body. Feeling a bit lost after her clean up, she went back to moping.

Her ever helpful HUD chirped at her about even lower energy levels.

By this point, Saber barely had the will or energy to keep going. Yet... _she_ hadn't died... and she still didn't want to. It seemed selfish but she _was_ still alive. She wanted to stay that way. Glancing around, she spotted a sort of bowl like container that would be able to hold energon if she ever found any. She moved that close to her so she wouldn't forget it. The second thing to fix was her eye.

Saber had a very short list of disgusting things that should not be done under any circumstance, unless absolutely necessary. That list included sparkling-sitting her little brother when he's sick, getting her finger ripped off by a vicious sliding door on a business-building, and getting sick herself and purging her tanks. She was about to add to that list. When she was younger, she had had a friend with doctors as parents. They had told her that if any appendage of hers was ever removed from her (such as her finger), then it could still be replaced fairly easily as long as the base the appendage was removed from had feeling.

The theory should hold true for eyes right? She sucked in a breath, scrunched her face up in preparation... and poked her finger to the back of the empty socket. Then she _screamed. _She didn't scream any sort of phrase, just an extremely animalistic, pained scream. This was accompanied by clapping her hand over the socket and stomping her foot on the ground repeatedly. "Ow!" she finally managed choke out after a few minutes of dancing the funky turbo-chicken. _At least I can replace it..._ she thought, hissing in a breath. Eventually she calmed down enough to take her hand away, and look around for her bowl she had picked up. She found it easily enough. It had rolled a short distance away; apparently she had kicked it during her pained fit. She walked through the mass of destruction to retrieve it, kicking a few things out of the way as she went. She still couldn't believe what had happened. Her city was practically leveled... and she was getting used to it. It was odd to think but... what happened had happened. She now lived in a trash pit. Her family was dead.

And it was time to move on.

She scooped up her bowl and studied it. Maybe if it survived the trip to... wherever she was headed... she would keep it. It was shimmery and silver, and had neat little designs on it. Maybe she could even keep- The thought ended as suddenly as it began. There was a dead body lying in front of her.

A _dead _body.

It was something she didn't think she could get over seeing. One hand? Sure. One body? No. But... it had... eyes. She needed an eye. "Ok, Sabe... gonna do it. Go. Go Sabe," she tried to reassure herself as knelt down by the mech's head. She couldn't tell if it was Autobot or Decepticon, but at this point she didn't care. She needed an eye. This hole in her head was going to get infected, and soon.

She steeled her nerves and tried to justify her actions, she felt like such a vulture, it was wrong, wrong, wrong, but she needed the part and- She popped the mech's eye out of socket.

It sat peacefully in her hand and she sat on the ground and hyperventilated a bit. "Slag," she muttered as she quickly turned the eye around and found the cable that led to the back of the socket. With shaky hands, she quickly put it in socket, and gasped as it quickly snapped into place and hurried to link with her systems. She gave a low whine as something grated under her eye when she tested how it moved. It would have to do though, grating and all. She was too vulnerable with just half a field of vision.

Suddenly spotting a gun lying by her nameless eye donor, she stuffed the bowl into subspace and decided to carry the weapon. Then she ran.

It had been a week since Saber had started running. She had thought long and hard about where she was going and finally decided on an Autobot camp. She knew 'Cons had ruined her city, and she wanted none of the useless violence they committed. She also knew she didn't want to be a neutral if surviving on her own was this hard. She had to scavenge for broken energon pipes that gushed forth little streams of life for her, and occasionally, if she found a supply store still standing, she raided that. It wasn't fun, or pleasant, or anything on any sort of positive scale of things. She was going to be an Autobot. She was going to be treated nicely, and have benefits.

It was a great plan. Now if only she could accomplish it.

Stumbling along through the ruins, she noticed that there was some sort of odd mist hovering about the area. She couldn't see through it well at all, and her sense of paranoia spiked to a new high. Her legs shook and her vents kicked up to maximum. For a few days now she had highly suspected she was infected with something. She felt sick, and sort of... not right.

Mentally.

It was scaring her and she wanted out of whatever this freakish nightmare was. Hearing footsteps on the ground, she turned around and aimed a shaky, gun-wielding hand at the stranger. "Who's there?" she called, managing to sound braver then she felt. The figure got a little closer, and Saber could see her... it was definitely femme-shaped, how odd... paintjob. She was some sort of eye-searing, bright orange. She took a few steps back, almost tripping on some rocks. "I-I'm warning you!" Saber yelped.

"Oh for Primus sake..." the orange femme grumbled, holding her hands up in surrender, "It's me, Wildstrike. I won't hurt you. Please just... put that gun down..." The femme shuffled nervously at the sight of the gun and backed up a bit.

Saber studied the femme. She seemed... familiar. "Wait... I know you..." she trailed off, lowering the gun. "Wild... swing?" she tried.

"Close, Wildstrike. You're Saberquake, right?" the femme seemed to relax a bit, "Now... please... point that gun away from me..."

Saber lowered the gun completely and set it down. "We... were friends right?" she asked tentatively, slowly finding firmer ground to stand on and study the bright orange bot. Her processor chose that moment to make the announcement that this bot obviously had some mini in her because she was much, much shorter than Saber. On any other day that would have been funny.

"Yes that's right. We were neighbors, well, sort of. You lived across the street," Wild nodded emphatically, relaxing a bit. Her small spikes twitched, seemingly to stay aware of her surroundings.

Saber's eyes darted around; a small, sticky stream of energon running from her replaced one. "I... remember..." she muttered. "You. You had the doctor parents. That was you. I lost my eye and replaced it, can you tell if it looks bad? I know it's bleeding..." she trailed off, her long curved antenna-spikes slowly flopping back to lie pinned down as far as they could go.

"Except for the bleeding...it looks okay. I'm not a medic, but I know enough that its okay... but we need to stop that bleeding somehow. I'm not the doctor to see for that though. Eyes are too complex... um... I know the general direction of an Autobot base, that's where I was heading," Wild rubbed the back of her neck.

"Right," Saber nodded. One of her antenna twitched violently and her cooling fans nearly stopped before kicking back on high. "Odd," she muttered. "What color's that new eye?" she asked curiously.

"Red," Wild smiled faintly, "You have bi-colored eyes now. I think it's kind of pretty."

"Red!" squawked Saber. "I'm gonna get shot! They're gonna think I'm a con, and shwoop, there goes my chance of a decent life, bye bye!" she exclaimed and paced nervously. Her antenna twitched rapidly, apparently under no sort of control what-so-ever. She was vaguely aware that she wasn't walking very well either, and she was overheating now...

She quickly sat down and tried to relax. "I'm ok," she muttered. "Just... let's do something about the bleeding and get to the Autobots."


	4. I Gotta Case for You

I've Gotta Case for You

Wild glanced around the area and then turned back to Saber, "Alright. No one is in the immediate area. Let me have a better look at that optic...I don't know that I can do much about the bleeding. We just need to try to get to the Autobot camp. Hm... maybe if we put a very small bit of rag, we can sort of stem the flow for now. It might grate a bit though."

Saber crossed her arms and studied Wild warily. "I... guess that's fine," she decided. "I already crammed my finger in there to make sure it was ok. What's a rag going to hurt?"

"Alright. I think I have a rag, but we have to make sure none of the little threads get in toward the back. It may look weird, but it's all I can do," Wild pulled a small rag out of subspace, checked it so that it was clean, and handed it to Saber, "Here, this looks clean enough."

Saber studied the rag before lining it up with the very bottom crevice between her eye and her socket. She poked it in and rolled her eye a bit to make sure it got in. "Good?" she asked, wincing a bit.

"It's stopped for now. Let's go, I have a general idea of an area where an Autobot camp is," Wild nodded to her, serious, and then muttered to herself, "I don't want to let the Cons get a chance to spot us."

Saber nodded as well. "That's fine with me," she agreed, looking at Wild a moment before rubbing her head. Her antenna were twitching again and it was starting to make the joints where they attached sore.

"This way," Wild began picking her way through the rubble, quite a determined look on her face. She mumbled something about being too easy to see with such bright paint.

Saber was content to stumble along behind her and keep watch. Occasionally she sighed or glanced behind them, but the area seemed fairly calm. There was just the mist from what she assumed must be broken machinery or something, and the rubble. Occasionally a turbo-hound or some other lesser cybernetic creature would scurry past or appear to drift through the mist.

"So how long have you been going? I've been driving for a few days and hiding for recharge when I could," Wild asked quietly.

"About a week," Saber shrugged. "I didn't get my alt mode before the attack. I've been walking. The roads are all screwed up anyway."

"I got mine just before the attack, but it's been getting harder to drive on any intact roads. There's a million detours," Wild sighed, "I started walking today."

Saber nodded and glanced around, rubbing at her antenna. "That's good..." she trailed off.

"What alt-mode were you thinking of getting?" Wild made small talk, seemingly to stay calm and yet alert.

"Grounder hover-craft," she replied. "Dad won't... wouldn't... let me be a flier." Saber accepted the light chat, liking the distraction and the possibility of a friend in all this mess.

"Mine is just a ground vehicle with smooth lines. It's one of those two wheelers with low handle bars that lean toward the seat. I'm still sort of learning how to handle it, and the rubble isn't helping me," Wild smiled slightly, "Why wouldn't he? Too major of a thing during the war?"

"We're a grounder family," Saber shrugged and left it at that.

Wild nodded and continued with a different train of thought, "Do you remember my sister, Star? The one that was really analytical? She has a family now."

Saber vaguely remembered someone blue in Wild's family. "I think so... is she happy?" she asked tentatively.

"She seemed happy. She had a kid named Shadow," Wild said, "Her bonded's name is Shockblade."

"That sounds nice," Saber smiled. "Did you ever think of getting bonded?" she asked curiously. "I did for a bit... then the war started."

"I thought of it, and there was this one guy that I liked..." Wild drifted off a bit, seeming to remember, and then she shook it off, "But I think he was interested in someone else. And then the war started, as you said."

Saber nodded. "Right, the war was kind of a plan killer," she grinned and stumbled up to walk beside Wild. "Do you... do you think I'm sick?" she asked, almost randomly

"I don't know for sure, but because of the unsteady walk and cooling fans... I think we need to get there soon. I don't know enough of what's going on," Wild frowned, "I'm sorry I can't give you a definite answer."

"Nah, it's fine," grinned Saber. "I don't feel too b-bad..." she slowly faded off into growling which slowly stopped on its own. Saber whined and rubbed her head. "Not doing that," she muttered, clenching and unclenching a fist. "How far away are we, Wild?" she asked, "I kinda feel like maiming something, it's freaking me out."

"I'm not sure," for a split second, it looked like she was about to freak out too, but then she seemed to calm, "I think it's closer than we realize. We just need to hurry."

Just then, in the corner of Saber's vision, a flash of red started to come at her. Wild yelled and shouted something about being Autobots. She tried to block off the red mech that seemed to be trying to attack.

Saber snarled and shoved Wild behind her, preparing to fight the red mech. "Stop!" she shrieked, "We're looking for help!"

"Oh! Slaggit. I thought you guys were Cons," he slid to a stop, his fans whirring a bit to cool down, and he breathlessly continued, "Looking for the Autobots? Their camp isn't far from here."

Wild sent a dirty look toward the red mech, "What's your name anyway?"

"Sideswipe," he grinned, puffing up a little bit in pride.

"That's an ugly name," growled Saber and stomped past him. "We need directions," she gave him a bi-colored glare.

"Follow me," he rolled his optics at her and began to lead the way. Wild sighed and followed, muttering something about troublesome twins. Saber followed, snarling the whole time and stumbling quickly behind Sideswipe.

After around a ten minute walk, Sideswipe pointed out a building not far off, "That's where some of us are staying. We have a medic if you need anything fixed."

"Thank you," Wild sighed gratefully.

"Yeah..." sighed Saber, "Um, guys I think now's a good time to-"

And she passed out.

Wild yelped and quickly caught her friend, "Sides! Help me get her to your medic!"

Sides rapidly scooped Saber up and hurried, shouting back to her, "I got her, come on!"

They reached the building in record time. Immediately Sides hurried in, calling for the medic, "Ratch! Gotta case for you!"

Ratchet hurried out, vague irritation disappearing at the sight of the limp youngling. "Get her inside," he ordered, pointing toward medbay. "You, Orange, you sit off to the side, you aren't in great shape either. What happened?"

-0-

Vivi- Thank you for all the comments for this story, we're definitely going to be continuing to update this one. (:

On a side note, for those of you who were reading Designation: Breeze, the story has gone on hiatus.


	5. Explained

Explained

_The war happened_, Wild sighed inwardly before taking a deep breath. Now Saber would get the medical attention she required. "We came from some destroyed towns. Saberquake borrowed an optic from some Con and she's been acting strange. She doesn't remember some things about her past, and she just fainted a few astroseconds ago."

"See, I am good for something, I brought two more bots interested in joining us," Sideswipe huffed at the medic. Wild glanced at him, and then rolled her optics. She faintly remembered his pranks back in school. He hadn't changed too much aside from growing quite a bit. He practically towered over her now. It didn't help she was a rather small bot.

"You said she... barrowed a con eye?" Ratchet asked, and odd, annoyed yet worried look on his face. "Because there is no _barrowing_ a spare part. Especially a con part. Once it's integrated into a bot's systems it's an extreme pain to remove, in more then one sense," he explained sharply.

"Apparently the closest dead bot was a Con. She lost an optic somehow," Wild looked away briefly, and then turned back, "I'm afraid she did." A worried expression came on her face. She hoped nothing horrible would happen because of the optic. She didn't want to lose another bot to the war, but she didn't think it was _quite_ that dangerous. She shivered slightly.

Ratchet sighed and shoved Sideswipe towards Saber. "Guard her," he muttered. "I'm sure she'll be fine," he replied. "Now stay there and don't move until I say to," he huffed to Wild as he started checking Saber over.

Sideswipe rolled his bright blue optics at Ratchet and stood by Saber, studying her curiously. Wild sighed and sat still, quiet and thoughtful. _Saber, I will smack you if you go out of my sight again. I'm not going to lose sight of one more of the people I care about. Star...I heard her town was safe so far. Luna's too. But by now...who knows. That was a few days ago. _Wild studied the tips of her bright orange pedes as she sat there.

Saber twitched a hand in Wild's direction and muttered a bit. One red optic cracked opened to a tiny slit, and then quickly shut. Ratchet sighed and continued to send updates to the computer. After a moment he narrowed his optics and started studying the data, apparently not very pleased.

Wild sat there studying Saber and watching Ratchet. She wanted to be prepared to help others. Maybe she could study under a medic and become a doctor like her parents…

Just then, the click of metallic pedes was heard outside the med bay and a knock sounded. Three quick taps, businesslike in their sequence. _Kind of like Star, _Wild mused to herself. Star had always been mature, even when she was a youngling.

Ratchet glanced up in irritation. "Come in," he called. "And stay away from the unconscious youngling."

Said youngling whined quietly and onlined her optics all the way, the red one glowing a bit brighter then the blue. "Whiny youngling," Ratchet corrected.

A navy blue femme stepped in quietly, her pedes clicking on the floor. "Sorry to disturb you..." the familiar voice trailed off and Wild jerked her head up.

"Star?" she nearly shouted, but she managed to answer in a normal tone. She hopped off the table and all but tackled her sister. Star kept them both upright with a small dry laugh.

"Wild...how...?" Star began.

"Cons," Wild looked up at her sister and ended it there. _Dani and Opi are...in the matrix, _she sent through their sibling bond. Star studied her for a second, and then hugged her gently.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," was all Star said.

Saber watched for a moment before, contemplating the peaceful aura of the scene before something in her snapped. Suddenly everything was motion and color and _rage at the Autobots because they did this _and something _hurt _and... and... and... she was on... the floor. She let her optics slowly roll over a pair of red and white feet and then up to a handsome red mech's face...

That was about all she could manage before drifting off, feeling somewhat like she was floating. How lovely.

Wild stepped back once she saw Sideswipe had it under control. She had reacted out of pure instinct and had pinned Saber's shoulders immediately, knowing Ratchet was trying to help her. She didn't know what had happened, but she knew it had to do with Saber's Con optic.

Ratchet stood over Saber, panting and bleeding slightly from a cut on his arm Saber had managed to give him when she practically flew off the table and tried to attack him. Sideswipe had tackled her and distracted her enough for Ratchet to snap a sedative out of subspace and practically stab her. "That answers one thing then... Star, I can assume you want this on your report?" he sighed.

Star blinked and sighed, "Yes sir. Who do I go to? So I can get all the information?" She glanced at Wild, "Sorry Wild, I'm just passing through."

Wild drooped a bit, but was still glad she saw her oldest sister was alive and well. Something seemed off. Something about her optics. A haunted, somewhat desperate emotion hovered in the corners. It had been there once when Star had visited their parents' place just a week ago. Now it was even more apparent. Maybe not to those who didn't know Star intimately, but it was there. Wild hugged her again briefly, and then it hit her. Where was Shadow? Shadow was just a sparkling. With Blade...?

Star seemed to see the questions on Wild's face and bit out, "They're gone, Wild."

Pain flashed over Star's face and disappeared. That was all. Wild's spark pumped painfully. Her sister had lost her whole family. Wild clenched her fist. Sideswipe held down Saber gently but firmly. He seemed to ignore the dark cloud that surrounded the two sisters.

Ratchet looked away respectfully and tended to his patient, staying out of the situation. Saber blinked and rolled her optics towards Wild and Star. "Gone..." she murmured. Her optics drifted back to Sideswipe and calmly watched him as Ratchet worked on her a little, disabling all motor controls. Her head flopped down and she went limp. "Back on the table," he muttered to Sideswipe, and glanced over at the two sisters again. "You can report to Prowl," he said quietly as he sent a map of the base to Star.

"Yes sir," Star repeated quietly, a mask of calm covering the sorrow immediately. She gripped Wild's shoulder a moment before making her way to Prowl's office. Sideswipe helped Ratchet move Saber back to the table soon after.

"Wild," Ratchet called over to her. "Come here. I have good news and bad news for you."

Wild went over to Ratchet and bit her lip plate slightly nervously, and then said quickly, "Just tell me. Don't try to gloss it over."

"I don't generally," Ratchet replied. "Now, Saber has some 'Con programming mixed in with her own now from that optic. You've heard of how the programmed Decepticons can pass on programming through spare parts, I assume?"

"My parents had talked it over a few times, yes," Wild rubbed her forehead, sighing as she did so. _This means Saber will have a host of problems. Great._

"Then you should know it's still in its early stages and I can isolate it. This will cause memory loss, aggressiveness, and an almost programmed-Autobot type mentality. Among other various symptoms and possibly complications. She should still maintain her personality though, and remember you. Generally bots like her, where the programming is caught early, make a fairly good comeback with a regular schedule, structured activities, and some support from others. Saber was brought in at a good time. This will affect her lifestyle though. Do you understand?" Ratchet asked. Saber slowly looked up at Wild, blinking tiredly.

"I understand," Wild gave a reassuring smile to Saber. She was staying with her friend, no matter what. She wasn't about to let Saber disappear again. Now she would feel safer with her best friend at her side.

Saber sighed and looked away, almost smiling. Ratchet nodded and had Wild sit back down to finish her repairs. "Prowl assigned you and Saber room twenty-five. After I'm done with you... right... about... there," he finished arranging some wires in Wild's arm back into place, "You can go. You're fine, but you're transforming too roughly."

"I got my new alt-form only recently, that may be part of the reason," Wild sighed as she stood nearby.

Ratchet nodded. "Alright. I can give you some files to read over sometime if you want. For now, I'm going to be working on your friend," he said, and walked back over to Saber to keep working on her. "She should be out of here within the next few hours."

"I'll ask for those later," Wild nodded before finding a seat. Nothing was going on in the rest of the base. She wanted to stay with her friend more anyway.

Ratchet nodded and went back to repairing Saber. "I'mma... be kay..." she murmured before sighing and falling asleep.

-0-

"...and about a week after that I was getting into the supplies and acting like a normal youngling again," Saber grinned at the memories of paint, pranks, and making friends with some of the others closer to her age. "Life moves on Wild," she grinned. "You just have to let it go on sometimes..."

"Yeah," Wild finally grinned, "It does move on. I'm ready for it to move on. I mean, come on, what's kind of message is it going to send when a daughter of some doctors can't stand med bay? This is a place of healing." _In more ways than one_, her mind finished. She could move on now, now that she had dealt with the long suppressed sadness. Her parents were happy in the Matrix. Now she would be free to move on and find new happiness.


	6. Drive

Drive

Saber sighed and lay happily on her berth. It had been around sunset when Saber had calmed Wild down and led her back into med bay. It had taken a good chunk of time into nightfall to finish repairs, and by that time Saber had been exhausted and grouchy and happily led Wild to their room they were to share together due to the small amount of personal rooms on base.

Now she planned to sleep for about a year. "Wild, you couldn't make me happier right now," she yawned from her bunk above Wild.

"Why's that..?" Wild mumbled drowsily. She was content to lay there in the peace and quiet. No moon dust was definitely a plus. She felt clean again after months without proper wash racks. Right after med bay, she had taken a nice, _long_, wash. There was no more grit in her armor. She let out a deeply relaxed sigh.

"Because I'm clean, lying in a bed... and it's nice. If a little plain," she muttered, halfway into recharge.

"Tha's jus' fine wi' me..." Wild slurred as her optics offlined. She immediately slipped into a very deep recharge.

-0-

The next morning proved far more entertaining. Saber woke Wild up by dropping a data-tablet on her head and laughing.

Wild nearly tackled Saber when she was startled awake with a somewhat strangled cry, "What's gotten into you? I was having such a nice, beautiful, wonderful _dream _when CRACK! goes a data-tablet on my head!"

Saber giggled and backed off, making the universal "Oh please don't kill me" gestures. "I got bored," she grinned.

"Well take your boredness and throw something at Ratchet," Wild huffed with a grin, "C'mon, let's get some energon. I'm starving." She then stalked out of their room and headed for the Cafe. Her stomach rumbled and she quickened her steps. _Real fuel, here I come!_

Saber quickly followed, snickering a few times before calming down. "So... remind me who all is here right now, Wild?" she asked. "I saw Hide, Prime, Ratchet, Bee's with Sam..."

"And Jazz," Wild finished, "I think that's all. Not a whole lot." She shrugged. These were definitely some of the more well liked 'Bots...well... Ironhide and Ratchet were questionable.

Saber nodded and looked around. "I like the base," she snorted. "Kinda has that run down warehouse feel you know? Real homey," she teased. The base really wasn't run-down, but it was basically, as of right now, a warehouse that had been separated into rooms.

Wild snickered, "Hey, it's better than moon rock and dust and no other life forms." She grinned as she reached the cafe.

"Now, _that _is what I call fuel. Not that stuff we had to thin out in order to live," she claimed, picking up and filling an energon cube. She took a sip and gave a deep sigh. Honest to goodness fuel. She had missed it.

Saber picked up a cube and filled it at the odd little energon machine as well. "Mmmmm..." she sighed as she took a careful sip. "It's good," she muttered as she started drinking the rest down. Across the room, Ironhide gave her a suspicious look. She mustered some semblance of self control and settled for an irritated antenna-twitch. Prime trusted her, why couldn't he?

Wild cheerfully waved at Hide and called a good morning to him. She knew the suspicious look all too well. Many Bots had stared at Saber that way. She understood why, but she didn't like it. She trusted Saber with her life. Just because Saber had a Con eye, it didn't mean she _was _one.

Ironhide gave a small grin back and called hello back to her. Prime hurried in, grabbed his energon and hurried out again, a jabbering Jazz following at his heels. Saber snorted and grinned, downing the rest of her morning fuel.

Wild grinned. "Think he's pestering Prime?" she asked Saber with a snicker, finishing her energon with a happy sigh.

Saber snickered, and poked random holes in her cube with a claw. "Maybe. You wanna go out, since we have nothing to do today? It's our adjustment day," she grinned.

"Who wouldn't want to explore? I mean, aside from the boring ones who want to get directly to work..." Wild snickered, coughing and muttering her sister's, Electrostar's, name, and then grinned, "Of course, where to?"

Saber perked up somewhat and did a quick scan over the map that Prime had sent them over the area. "Seekers like to fly near that one cliff on the map... and it's a good drive there. You want to?" she asked.

"Sure," Wild replied after a moment, studying the area on the map, "It looks like a nice quiet area too." Wild always did prefer more relaxed environments, rather than the rush, rush of city life, even back on Cybertron.

Saber was never so sure of those quiet places. She liked speed and noise too much, and quiet could irritate her. She didn't feel comfortable to go into the nearby city yet however, and staring off a cliff and taking in the new planet seemed like a good idea. Hopefully she wouldn't be trying to throw herself off that cliff in a week due to boredom.

"Let's go," Wild finally broke out of her thoughts and grinned, leading the way outside before collapsing down into her alt-mode, "Hey Sabe, do you know what alts we've picked out yet?"

"Nope," she said, as she crouched down and transformed into her alt mode. "I didn't really care."

"Well I found out mine is a really nice one, but I can't remember the name..." Wild checked the internet quickly, "Oh! Mine is a Lamborghini Murcielago. Yours is... a Mustang." Wild grinned. They had chosen well, despite the rush to get to base.

"Oh," Saber revved forward a little. "Does that mean something?"

"Mustangs are rather popular, same goes for Lamborghinis, but apparently, I picked a more expensive car in human terms. Does it look ok? You look great," Wild grinned.

"You look fine," Saber grinned. "Those seekers will just fall out of the sky from your dazzling self," she teased, leading the way to the lookout.

"They should," Wild huffed, grinning, and then she muttered, "If only I catch the optic of a certain someone, maybe..." She quickly followed her friend.

"What's that, Wild?" Saber called back to her.

"Nothing! Nothing whatsoever," Wild smiled cheerfully. _It's not like he noticed me then...but we were all younger. Who knows..._

Saber was happy to shrug off the odd comment and keep driving. Occasionally, she would swerve to the left or right to look at something before settling back into driving. The planet wasn't bad, but was still covered with dust, and sometimes there were small patches of mud. However, it wasn't moon dust and Saber was eternally grateful.

Wild let go of her train of thought and picked up a new one. This definitely wasn't the moon or Cybertron, but either way, she was back with more bots. That was always a plus in her optics. Not to mention the fact one of them..._wait, I thought I dropped that topic! _Wild grumbled to herself. She must have gotten lonely or something. It wasn't like her to continue to think on a certain mech.

Up ahead, Saber squawked and slammed on her brakes. "Slagging..." she took a moment to search the internet, "...possum," she muttered. The creature itself looked rather irritated, and ambled off the road in an offended manner. Saber growled at it and kept driving. "Watch out for possums," she told Wild dryly.

Wild ended up bursting out in laughter at Saber. "Really? Ya don't say?" She went off into more a few minutes, she finally calmed down, sputtering about best friends and their 'possums.

"Hey, it's a big fraggin' rat, it's creepy," Saber snorted, grinning inwardly. "Anyways we're here," she added, pulling close to the edge of a large cliff. The road they had pulled off of was dirt, but the area around the cliff, and thus the side of the road, was all tall, soft grass. It tickled Saber when she drove over it, and she had to snort back a laugh. The grass hung over the edge of the cliff, which angled down steeply for a long, long ways. Saber didn't want to bother to try and calculate it, though Wild might. The bottom of the cliff seemed to contain even more grass, some trees, and some mountains in the far off distance. They were obviously above a valley of some sort right now.

Wild snickered, and then looked around the area and relaxed. "Nice place," she giggled as she went over the grass, "Gah, that tickles..." She studied the valley thoughtfully. This would probably become one of her favorite spots.

Saber bounced once on her tires in agreement. "Yeah... I think I could get used to earth, what about you?" she asked.

"I think I could too," Wild grinned, "Better than empty space and moon dust. This planet is teeming with life, stuff to explore, and mechs- I DIDN'T SAY THAT. YOU DIDN'T HEAR ME." Her fans kicked on immediately, embarrassed at the cause of her outburst, and the outburst itself.

"Oh yes I did!" Saber howled with laughter. "Getting desperate my little, orange friend?" she choked out through laughter.

"No, no I'm not," Wild huffed at her hysterical friend, "I will never be as desperate as that red 'Bot that calls himself Sideswipe." She grinned slightly however. She wasn't really angry with her friend, merely embarrassed.

Saber's laughing eventually died down. "Alright, alright, I see where you're coming from, you hopeless romantic you," she snickered. Suddenly she glanced at the sky. "Seekers," she whispered, switching from hysterical to awe in about two seconds, the average amount of time she ever took to swap between emotions

"I'm not a hopeless romantic…" Wild muttered, then spotted the seekers. Only one trine would have such a wide variety of colors and execute their moves with such ease.

"Aw scrap, Starscream and his brothers."

Saber didn't really respond besides a faint rev of her engine. "Shh," she hissed to Wild. She remembered watching Starscream's trine back on Cybertron. They had been her favorites, and still were when she got to watch them fly around in peace. Otherwise, she was generally destroying them on a battlefield, and that could only ever be painful.

Today seemed to be a good seeker watching day though, and for a while both femmes were given a good show. The purple and black jet, Skywarp, didn't really seem like he wanted to be practicing battle moves halfway in however, and went after the red, blue, and white leader, Starscream, in the most pestering and annoying ways he knew.

However, Starscream wouldn't have any of it and started scolding him, circling the unabashed Skywarp. Wild watched with amusement at the argument. She noticed the blue seeker, Thundercracker, was only watching and stayed out of it. _Wise choice_, she thought to herself.

Thundercracker soon joined in however, but not in the way Wild expected. He merely shoved the two aggravated brothers apart and spoke a few choice words to them. Starscream seemed offended at the fact his younger brother had interfered and began yelling at Thundercracker. This encouraged Skywarp to yell at both his brothers, and throw in some rather strong language.

"So... Family problems I guess?" Saber muttered to Wild.

"Most likely," Wild muttered back, studying the three vastly different brothers. Skywarp, the crazy, mischievous youngest brother, who liked to tease the other two. Thundercracker, on the other hand, seemed fairly laid back outside of battles, and tried to keep peace between the others. Finally, Starscream, the oldest and domineering brother, couldn't seem to handle the insanity Skywarp gave him.

Just as Wild began to wrap up her musings on the trine, Starscream glanced there direction. For the hundredth time, Wild wished she were a less blinding orange, or not orange at all, and that she could blend in with her surroundings.

Saber sighed, and inched back a few feet. "Wild... get ready," she murmured to her friend. "I don't like the vibes I'm getting off of 'Screamer... or his putrid, purple, pestilence."

"I was born ready…" Wild whispered back, inching back also. She groaned inwardly as she saw Starscream give orders to his trine mates and all three headed for the rather brightly colored femmes.

Saber quickly transformed out of her alt mode and stood ready. No one was going to mess with her or Wild on their first day on Earth. Her blue eye faded a little as the red glowed brighter. _Decepticon Battle Program: Start-up: Y/N: Y._

-0-

Vivi- Alright, this chapter… went on forever… eh. I promise, it won't always be like this.

Athena: bleh sorry guys, this ones…meh. Ok.

And if you want you can go to Vivi's list of stories and look for one that's pretty new and written by me… yup. *Shameless advertising*


	7. Creepers

Creepers

Wild growled faintly as she transformed. _Way to ruin my day. _She narrowed her bright blue optics at the oncoming seekers.

Starscream landed in front of them, studying them carefully and standing regally. His smooth low voice nearly made Wild jump, "So what have we here? A puny Autobot femme, and a half-con, all alone? My, what a _shame _no others are around to protect them."

Thundercracker stood at the back once he landed. Wild noticed he seemed uncomfortable with what Starscream was doing. _Why would he be uncomfortable? This is what stupid Cons do. _She flicked her attention back to the leader of the trine and scowled, moving into a battle stance and quickly taking a gun out of subspace.

Saber's red optic glowed brighter as the blue optic darkened. "What... did you call me...?" she snarled low and menacing.

Skywarp grinned at the two femmes, seemingly amused. His trine of three elite seekers was more than a match for the two little femmes.

Starscream only smirked, not at all fazed by Saber's reaction, "What do you think we should do with these defenseless femmes, Skywarp?" It was obvious he already had a plan, but he was doing it all for show. Wild just aimed her gun as calmly as she could at Starscream. She had killed Cons before, but she wasn't sure if she could take out a seeker. She had never faced one head on, much less three _elite _seekers.

"Defenseless my aft," growled Saber, "Get over here Starsqueal. We'll have fun." She pulled a short dagger out of subspace. Saber had been teased several times over weapon choice, but her style of fighting preferred small, sharp, quick such as daggers and swords to big, bulky ones such as guns.

Skywarp grinned at her and Wild. "Well... I say we rough 'em up first. Then we'll play it by ear? What about you, Thundercracker, sound fun?"

The blue seeker shrugged, sighed, and muttered, "Sounds like a waste of energy to me. Besides, we need to conserve it, not waste it."

"Come on, they're just sitting ducks for us to pluck," Starscream grinned, "Now don't get in a mood little femmes, we aren't going to hurt you…"

"Don't give me those lies," Wild growled, about ready to pull the trigger. She was reluctant to though, because then she'd have an even bigger problem. Maybe she could just hit them in the wings, and then she wouldn't have to deal with them…

Saber bared her teeth as her grip on the dagger tightened. Her antenna laid flat against her head and she took a step forward, daring the seekers to make any sort of move against her or her friend.

Skywarp decided he wasn't to sure about this plan now as he watched Saber, and it showed in his sudden uneasy glances at Starscream and some fidgeting. Autobot femmes, as far as he knew, were small and soft and easy to maim. These two weren't looking that way, and his wings twitched uneasily as he started to inwardly starting to agree with Thundercracker. These two were a waste of energy, and would damage him and his trine. Thundercracker had begun to move away even though Starscream didn't show any signs of backing down.

"Oh poor frightened little femmes…" Starscream purred, moving closer to Wild, but that's when he made his mistake. Wild immediately fired a shot near his head as a warning. She didn't _like _killing, so if she could drive them away first before killing, she would.

Saber reacted to the shot by smashing her dagger into Starscream's wing and ripping it down the entire length, causing a bloody, ragged gash. "Back!" she barked at him, and before he could react she made a new gash that crossed the first to make an 'X'.

Starscream immediately jerked away and was rapidly backing off, growling as he did so, "Alright, we're going. Violent half-cons aren't worth it." He snarled and took off immediately, flying as best as he could with a giant, energon splattered 'X' in his wing. Wild fired a warning shot after him, growling.

Skywarp hurried after his leader quickly, wings pinned back slightly. The only 'Con left was Thundercracker. Saber turned to him after watching the first two seekers fly off and then looked at the lone, blue, mech. Her optics slid to his spark for a moment and she twirled her dagger threateningly. It was an obvious threat.

Thundercracker seemed to have a flash of a regretful look, and then he took off too, following his retreating trine. Wild finally subspaced her gun, watching the trine out of sight. Thundercracker's reaction had unnerved her slightly. He hadn't even tried to join his trine in their obvious attempt to rough her and Saber up.

Saber raged and snarled at the edge of the cliff, shouting curses at the retreating seekers until they were out of sight. Her curved, spike-like antenna stayed pinned down as far they could and quivered. She was venting hard and it was hard to miss how far her temperature had risen.

Wild calmed finally, but now realized she had a new task: to calm her friend, "Saber, its okay. Let's go back to base." Wild was still shaken. The elite seeker trine was a force to be reckoned with, and she had been afraid for her life.

Saber barely twitched in Wild's direction. She seemed locked in place now as her fans whirred and her antenna quivered.

Wild tried again. "Saber, c'mon. They aren't coming back," then she noticed Saber's optics, "Saber, we need to head back." It was obvious now the Con programming in her red optic had kicked in.

Saber growled in response, tensing again. She couldn't help her 'Con programming kicking in under battle situations. For the most part it was blocked off, but it was a very strong and forceful code. She had to have some outlet for it.

She shifted a little, trying to calm herself. Wild flinched slightly and backed off. She knew better than to annoy Saber too much when the Con programming had kicked in.

It took her ten more minutes but Saber did eventually calm down enough to turn back to Wild. She was still trying to cool down, but she was calm again.

"Sorry," she muttered, heading back to the road. She quickly dropped back down to her alt mode and sat still. "Let's go back," she said quietly.

Wild only nodded and transformed quietly. She just wanted to get back and stay away from an area the Cons might be in for now. She had become a little rusty in her training, and didn't want to face anymore head on like that.

"I'm gonna go back and train for awhile Ironhide," Saber muttered as she sped off. She was done with exploring today as well, and obviously shared Wild's thoughts about brushing up on her battle skills.

Wild sighed and sped back to base after Saber. Once she reached base though, she transformed too quickly and nearly fell on her face. Her little spikes quivered slightly as she flailed her hands to catch her balance. _Well that was stupid. _

Luckily for Wild, someone was there to catch her. That someone definitely wasn't Saber though, because she was wandering off to go train with Ironhide, barely noticing Wild.

"You okay, little lady?" a friendly mech's voice asked. Wild's fans kicked on, immediately recognizing who the mech was.

"I'm f-fine…I just transformed too fast…" Wild sort of mumbled embarrassedly. Of all the people to stop her fall, she hadn't expected Jazz.

"Aw that's okay. Prime did that this morning," he snickered. "Poor guy looked so embarrassed."

"I'll bet," Wild's spikes twitched slightly, carefully regaining her balance, "At least it wasn't right after running from the elite trine…"

"Wait, what?" Jazz asked, suddenly becoming serious. He let her go and took a step back, giving her a light scan to check for damage. "You're not hurt right? What about Saber?" he asked, concerned.

Wild shivered a little at the scan, faintly startled, "We're fine, I'd say we got off without a scratch, while Starscream… has a nice big energon splattered 'X' on his wing…"

"Courtesy of Saber, I'm assuming?" Jazz sighed. "Well... great..." he murmured, "That sucks."

"It mostly startled us, we're fine…" Wild repeated, then blinked with a slight grin, "Hey, you don't think I'm vicious enough to do that?"

Jazz grinned and shrugged. "Hey, I bet you're vicious in your own way, Zippy," he grinned, but became serious a moment later. "Seriously though, you need to tell Prime what happened.

"I will in a minute. Hold on there, _Zippy_? Where the scrap did that come from?" Wild couldn't let the random nickname go, even if she needed to go tell Prime what had happened.

"Your apparent love of speed," Jazz snickered. "You came speedin' in here super-quick and almost fell on your face. I thought it was appropriate," he grinned and leaned against the wall of the base casually.

Wild huffed at him, "It wasn't love of speed, Sir-Knows-it-All." She snickered immediately though, "Zippy? Well, I suppose it's more creative than Popsicle…"

"Who calls ya Popsicle?" Jazz laughed, "Though that fits pretty well too!" he laughed even harder as he thought of Bumblebee's human friend, Samuel Witwicky eating a Wildstrike shaped frozen treat.

Wild couldn't help laughing too, "Ratchet, Luna, and several others I'm pretty sure…"

"Well, now you've got some variety at least Zippy," Jazz winked at Wild, and finally calmed down. "Hey, I got patrol now, sorry. See you around?" he asked, pushing himself away from the building to a standing position. He had obviously just got done with a wash-and-wax judging by the way his silver and black armor glittered in the sun.

Wild couldn't help watching him a bit. He looked nice… handsome…

"Er, what was that?" she asked slightly distracted, embarrassed.

"Patrol. I have it," Jazz snorted. "Did 'Screamer bust your audios with his girly-squealy voice?" he teased. Wild huffed again in response.

"No… um… have fun? Why'd you get all nice for patrol?" she tried to tease back, but failed miserably with a self-conscious squeak in her voice.

"It was time for a nice bath," Jazz shrugged. "I had patrol last night in the rain and the mud was all up in my gears."

"Right… ok… um…" Wild stuttered a bit, still distracted by the light reflecting off his armor, "I'm glad I haven't had patrol in the mud yet."

"Yeah, it's a pain," Jazz grinned. "Anyways, I'm off. See you around, Zippy. Don't forget to tell Prime what happened," he cheerfully told her and walked off. He transformed down into his Porsche alt mode and sped off a moment later.

"Oh I won't," Wild sighed before heading directly to Prime's office. She knocked with four rhythmic taps on his door and waited for his answer.

"Come in," Prime called from somewhere in his make-shift office. The entire base was still being built up, and small, scrappy rooms were the best everyone could do for Prime's office and for personal quarters.

Wild went in and stood before the rather large desk, suddenly feeling very small and insignificant. She cleared her vocalizer nervously.

"Saber and I had a run in with the Decepticon elite trine. We weren't harmed, but Starscream now sports a large energon splattered 'X' on his wing, courtesy of Saber. We were at the lookout area east of here," Wild recited as if she was speaking into an answering machine.

Prime sighed and studied Wild for a moment. "Alright, thank you. Stay around base for awhile now... perhaps a few weeks. I wouldn't put it past Starscream to be out for revenge in his spare time. Tell Saber as well, wherever she's at." Prime rubbed his head, and glanced at a work tablet. "We'll up the alert around here. Did you or Saber attack Starscream?"

"Starscream now sports a large energon splattered 'X' on his wing, courtesy of Saber," Wild repeated, slightly miffed that he hadn't noted that she had already told him, "And yes sir. I'll warn her."

"Saber, right, sorry," Prime nearly growled. "I'm tired today, I apologize Wildstrike. Do you mind locking Saber in her room since we're still digging the Pit of Do- the brig?"

Wild backed up a few feet, optics widening slightly. She hadn't meant to be rude to Prime, and she knew with all the things he had to do, he didn't need this on top of it. She only nodded and backed to the door.

"Thank you," Prime nodded, and went back to his work. Wild scampered away to tell Saber what was going on and decided to stay with her. There wasn't much to do yet anyway except for reports, but she wasn't sure how Saber would take house arrest. She was sure Saber wouldn't take it well, but they couldn't go against a highly-stressed Prime's orders.

-0-

Athena: Welll... sorry about the wait guys. Life's going crazy right now, and we have all kinds of crazy all over the place. I wish we could update regularly for you guys but our schedule won't allow it :( anyways, any comments on what we could do better at/what you like is appreciated! Thanks.

Vivi- Insane more like it… ugh. SUMMER. That's when I can write when only my characters inhabit my head, not reading, arithmetic, and science. -_-

Anyway, Enjoy and I DARE you to write one thing you liked about this chapter, and one thing you didn't like. Trying to improve writing here! :D

Athena: I need a mini Wheeljack to help me with science D: *goes on an epic hunt*

Vivi- …agreed…


	8. Thoughts

**Vivi: We are nearing the end of the school year, meaning, more time to write :D Reviews keep us going, so. If you're reading this, we'd appreciate a note on what we're doing right or wrong (: Reader, read on!**

** Athena: Holy fruit loops, a wild update appeared. Huzzah, enjoy, I'm going to bed. -_- zzzzz**

Thoughts

"Um… Saber? What do I do if I can't stop staring at shiny Jazz?" Wildstrike stared pleadingly at her best friend. She was completely serious, and it showed in the drooping of her small spikes on her head.

Saber gave the dust mote she had been staring at for the past twenty minutes a completely confused look. "Shiny Jazz?" she asked, completely zoned out. She tended to almost fall into a trance when she was locked up. By now she had been locked up for a good three days and had not moved for two of them.

"Yeah, he was all shiny and clean and…" Wild trailed off, her cooling fans kicked on in her embarrassment.

Saber took a moment to stretch and vent air quickly through her systems, a Cybertronian yawn. "So... what? He's pretty? You like it?" she asked, finally turning towards her friend. She let one arm hang off the top bunk that she was perched on in their shared quarters and blinked tiredly. She used her other arm to prop up her head and let her long antenna lay at a relaxed position, not laying down, but not perked up either.

"Well… kinda yeah but…" Wild shrugged awkwardly, "He's third in command… I'm a medic in training… I don't know…"

Saber took a long moment to study Wild. "Why are you asking me for help? I've never liked anyone before," she sighed. "I dunno, just chase him down and tell him he's gonna love you or else."

Wild's optics rounded in astonishment, "I can't do that, I was always told that the mech made the first move…typically…but…I…dunno…"

"Not where I'm from," Saber grinned. "I'm merchant-class remember? We let girls go first," she explained. Different classes of Cybertronians had different programming. This affected what sort of culture they had. Saber, being of the merchant class, had a tendency to think of how valuable something was in credits, if she could gain a profit from it in some way, and was rather defensive of her possessions. Wild, being medic-class, was different. She thought in terms of how she could help others in anything and everything. She was very defensive of those she had helped before and would give swift retribution to those who would hurt her family or close friends.

"Yeah, since I'm medic-class, it's the mechs that go first. But I'm not exactly sure what class Jazz is…" Wild trailed off, thinking. She also had some characteristics of the more musical class, such as singing for family and friends and composing poems and such for 'bots that they were romantically interested in. Since both of her parents were medics, she followed the medic-class rules for the most part.

Saber shrugged and twitched an antenna. "Dunno, but he kinda acts like musical. I might stretch all the way to protection-officer but that's kind of a far stretch..." she trailed off. "What is this, love at first sight, Wild?" Saber grinned at the bright orange femme a little.

Wild huffed, "I don't believe in love at first sight unless it's a spark-call."

"So... You are desperate and I was right?" Saber grinned a little bigger. "This is kinda sudden."

"I never said I loved him Saber," Wild snorted, "I just asked what to do so I don't look like a complete spazz about shiny things." Her spikes twitched a little and her cooling fans buzzed a bit as she tried to keep them from kicking on.

"I would say don't spazz about shiny things," Saber replied, snickering slightly. "Sorry, I thought you liked him. You know with the whole 'can't stop staring' and all..." she grinned and tucked her arm up underneath herself. Wild had yanked her down before to get even, she didn't doubt she would do it again.

"Saaaabeeeer," Wild mock whined, "I'm not, he's a good friend, and that's all, I just don't want to look like an idiot in front of him. It's one thing around you, because you're my bestest buddy…"

Saber snickered again. "Well, just look at his face, I dunno. Maybe one of your sisters will get here soon to help you out when you have an official crush," she teased. "I think you're in a pre-crush phase. I've seen that weird look of yours before."

"What weird look?" Wild sent Saber a dirty look, "I don't have a look. What pre-crush phase?" She snorted.

"You know what I'm talking about Wild. You did the same thing back when we were young. You asked me how not to be weird around a guy and looked all pleading," she demonstrated by pulling a sad, cute face with drooped antenna, "and then you had a crush on him." Saber returned to normal and snickered. "And me thinks the orange popsicle protesteth a bit too much."

Wild groaned as she remembered the few other times when she had been in school. One of the times…"Aw scrap, one of those times was when I had a crush on Jazz when I worked at the DJ studio…" Wild huffed, "It's not that hilarious Saber…"

Saber rolled over on her back and looked at Wild upside down. "Yes it is," she snickered. "I don't even remember that far, Wild, but thanks for telling! I was referring more to your brief crush at the first base we lived at... Sideswipe right?" she grinned.

"I never liked that dweeb," Wild scowled, "And you _aren't _welcome." Wild huffed at Saber, only mildly annoyed that she had given more fodder to the fire of teasing Saber was burning.

"Well who was it then?" Saber asked, grinning. She pulled her antenna down, making a puppy-pout face. "Aw, somebody has a frowny-wowny face and a funky paint job..." she teased.

"Saberrrrr," Wild groaned again, "…I think it was Optimus Prime…" She started to laugh. Of all the crushes she had, that had to be the worst. Luckily, he had a femmefriend now, and Wild was more interested in the third-in-command.

Saber giggled and perked her antenna up. "Hey, remember how I was like... Prime's puppy because of my programming for awhile? That was bad."

Wild snickered, "I remember that… I think that was very close to that time I liked him too, which caused even more problems." She went on to animatedly describe her version of the whole scenario at the first base they had stumbled upon.

-0-

While Saber and Wild had their nostalgic chat, a space pod broke through the atmosphere not far from the Autobot base. The heat inside caused the purple femme inside to curl up tighter to avoid the sides as much as possible.

"Almost there, Lunarstorm, and then no more wandering," the little femme coached herself, carefully guiding the pod to an open clearing. She braced herself as the pod skidded along the ground several yards after impact. She blinked her blue optics as she waited a few minutes more for the outer shell to cool down enough for her to crawl out. She twitched her little spikes thoughtfully. _I hope my sister is here… last I heard, she was close to this strange little backwater planet._

Half a mile away, Skywarp saw little Lunarstorm's pod fling itself into the dirt. He zipped over and started circling, but kept all communications quiet. Maybe he could just kill the thing and drag the body back home. Maybe Starscream would stop hitting him after that.

Luna nudged the door. _Ow, it's hot. _She made a face. _Duh. _This thing would take too long to cool down. Time for Plan B. She kicked it quickly to minimize the pain, ran out, and plopped on the ground to nurse her foot. _Ow ow ow…_

Skywarp snickered at her from above before warping out of the air and landing in front of Luna. "Ok, so my plan is to kill you," he aimed a gun at her, "And drag you home. 'Kay?"

"But…I just got here," Luna stared at the gun and then back up at Warp, "Wait… don't I know you?" There was something vaguely familiar about this black and purple seeker that warped. His wings drooped heavily as if weights were pulling them down. _That's not normal…_

Skywarp let his arm fall to his side. "What?" he asked in confusion.

"Oh yeah! You lived next door for a while when we were sparklings," Luna's optics brightened, "You're Warp!"

"Oh... Um, yeah," Warp replied, seemingly confused. "Well then, can I just take you prisoner?" he asked, re-aiming his gun at Luna. She heard a faint whirring sound that gave an indication that he was overheating. _He doesn't sound too good…What's wrong?_

"…Do you have enough energon? 'Cause I'm hungry," she squeaked slightly and scooted back a bit nervously despite her growing concern. Lack of fuel often drove bots mad and caused similar symptoms to what she saw here. _I should know this, my parents were medics for crying out loud! We saw a bunch of homeless bots and abused sparklings that drooped and overheated a lot because of not having enough fuel. _

Skywarp hesitated again. "Alright, I'm just messing with you I guess," he sighed and plopped down, sub-spacing his gun. "I'm starving. We don't have hardly any energon. I'm sick of this stupid war."

Luna sighed and studied him, "Me too. The war had no point anymore. There's… there's no Cybertron left really. Gimmie a second, I need to radio Prime that I'm actually here." She sent the signal and waited. Poor mech. No wonder he wanted the war to be over. There was no way he could survive without energon.

"So how long till he gets here?" Warp asked. Now that he wasn't threatening Luna, it was more obvious the seeker was in no shape to even be taking prisoners. He wasn't thinking straight. He would never have sat down when facing an enemy. He looked pathetic. Seekers were called the rulers of the skies. This one was sitting like a bump on a log.

"Around thirty minutes," Luna replied a faint frown crossing her faceplates.

"Ah," Warp muttered. "I'm just gonna sit here then... I shouldn't have even been flying," he sighed. "I guess if you want to kill me you can." _Considering she could have beat me at a fight by this point. I'm so stupid for trying to pick a fight... _he sighed, depressed by his thoughts.

"Why would I need to do that?" Luna moved over and held out a cube to him with a very minimal amount of energon left, "…I won't need this. You need it more than I do. I won't kill you. There wouldn't be a point in it anyway."

Warp snatched the cube out of Luna's hand with enough force to rip off her arm. "Thanks!" he crowed, and chugged the remaining energon.

Luna blinked in surprise and wiggled her fingers a moment before a slight grin appeared, "You're welcome, crazy seeker."

Warp sighed and leaned back as he tossed the empty cube back at Luna. There was a moment of silence as both just sat together before Warp moved to stand up. "I should go," he said as he stood up fully, "'Screamer is gonna get me if I don't get back soon."

"Alright, later Warp," A small smile crossed her face as she heard Prime and other Autobots coming, "Besides, my 'rescue party' has arrived."

Skywarp looked off in the general direction of the approaching Autobots, sucked in a startled breath, and hightailed it out of the area like Megatron himself was after him. He made it out of sight just as Prime pulled up.

-0-

Luna carefully drove up to the base in her new earth alt form, a BMW 6 series convertible. It was a comfortable ride that fitted her to a 'T'. She transformed to her bi-pedal mode just as an orange blur zoomed out of base and grabbed her.

"Luna!" Wild grinned excitedly, "I'm _so _glad you could make it!"

"Me too…big sister," Luna snickered as she patted her older sister's head. Wild had somehow come out a foot or two shorter than her youngest sibling.

"Aw hush you," Wild snorted with a grin, too happy to care about the teasing.

Prime smiled at the two sisters. "I've already sent Lunarstorm everything she should need, and she has been checked over by Ratchet," he told Wild as the others moved off. Ratchet had checked Luna over and gave her a clean bill of health aside from her foot, which would heal on its own. Ironhide gave the obligatory suspicious stare when he had first met her. Jazz was on patrol somewhere, and Bumblebee was off base, as always. "I'll let you two get settled on your own," Prime smiled and walked off with the others.

"Lemme show you to my room," Wild grinned, "You'll be in the room next to me though since Saber is already rooming with me."

"Sounds good to me. So, I noticed that look you have when…"

"Hush you! Augh, you're as bad as Saber!"

" 'Scuse me?" Saber asked. She had finally been allowed out of her room and was currently leaning against the door to a closet. She smiled politely at Luna, and then looked at Wild.

"The conversation we had earlier. You know the one. And don't tell Loony anything, or I will hunt you down," Wild threatened with a grin, "I don't need a sister on my case too. Oh, meet Lunarstorm, my youngest sister."

Luna giggled slightly and gave an easy grin to Saber, "Hey."

-0-

_A seeker stood at the entrance of the 'Con base. His red optics scanned the horizon, thinking and planning. Enough was enough. His trine-mate was getting worse as the days went on. Rations were getting smaller. Once a proud fighter of the skies, he was reduced to drooping wings, low energy, and in order to survive as a last resort, eating car fuel. He could only imagine what that was doing to his internals. Car fuel was _not _seeker fuel. _

_What was the point of this wretched war anyway? Megatron was dead. The 'Cons were reduced to scavengers. He just wanted the war to end. There was no Cybertron to go back to, and there wasn't anything aside from his other trine-mate left that he cared for in this wreck of a base. Maybe if he left…his trine-mate would follow. It was a chance he had to take. _


	9. Crackers from Heaven

Crackers from Heaven

Wild slipped off her bed and out the door, leaving Saber to sleep a little longer. She had a plan, and she wasn't about to wait one it. It was about time she did something to help out. Since she was medic class, she knew exactly who she was going to ask for training. She grinned as she made her way to the medbay. She had planned on being a medic in the first place, it was about time she started learning.

"Ratchet?" She called softly.

Ratchet turned around from whatever he was messing with on the counter in the back. "Yes? Is something wrong?" he asked. He picked up a wrench and started twirling it absent mindedly.

"Er… no. I was wondering if I could train to be a medic… I just haven't had the chance to get any while running from the 'Cons," Wild eyed the wrench warily.

Ratchet grinned and tossed the wrench away. "So you want to be a medic? You're sure?"

"Oh yeah, I never was a fighter," Wild relaxed and grinned, "I've always wanted to be a medic anyway."

Ratchet studied her for an awkwardly long moment. "You do know what being a medic entails don't you? Can you put up with energon, badly wounded and dying soldiers of either faction, people dying despite your best efforts? I'm just putting out there what happens when you're a medic. I get too many wishy-washy little femmes who can't open a panel on someone's back without bursting into tears."

Wild raised a brow, "I've already had to deal with most of that trying to keep away from the 'Cons. My parents were medics, and I helped them. I've seen plenty, and I know I have a lot to learn. Don't get me wrong, I know it's going to be hard work, and I'm not going to be like those femmes." She had a dogged expression on her face. She knew what it entailed and was determined to do her job well.

Ratchet tossed a data-tablet at Wild. "Learn this in two days. Come back, take a test, and I'll have an assignment for you. I'll decide whether to keep you or not after that," he replied, grinning faintly. That tablet was specifically designed by Prowl to root out the lazy trainees and discourage them from continuing. There was no place for laziness in a war. If Wild survived the overly complicated sentences, the reviews at the end that were in no particular order, had strangely worded questions, and the various multiple choice quizzes from the pit, then she was in good shape to continue with the _rest_ of the testing.

"Yes sir," Wild nodded as she caught the tablet. She flipped through a few pages with a faintly amused smile. It looked like one of her parent's extremely dull and wordy textbooks they kept around from their own training. "I'll be ready in two days." She was relieved that she had a chance. Now she would make the most of it.

Ratchet nodded. "You better be if your serious about this," he said, and turned back to whatever he was doing before Wild came in.

"Thank you," she replied as she left medbay. She then turned down the hall, entered the cafeteria, and immediately began wading through the medical terminology.

Saber watched tiredly as she walked in. She was simultaneously drinking her morning energon, listening to one of Ironhide's old war stories, and messaging back and forth with Jazz.

Sometime in the not-so-distant future, Samuel Witwicky would describe this as 'typical female behavior'.

Wild finished her first read through of the datapad and looked up, "Hey Saber, guess what?" She grinned, eager to tell the news to her best friend. Her morning energon could wait a minute or two.

"Mrrgh," muttered Saber. Ironhide paused his story and looked up. "You have a better way to wake up this friend of yours?" he asked, watching as Saber just about fell in her energon but managed to jerk away at the last second.

"Well… not really. You kinda just let her wake up on her own," Wild grinned slightly, "And Saber, I have a trial run with helping Ratchet out!"

Saber's antenna suddenly perked up. "Really? So I finally have my own personal nurse?"

"You need one," snorted Ironhide, "I think you might be narcoleptic."

Saber took a moment to research the term before sticking her tongue out at Ironhide and then grinning at Wild.

Wild snickered, "I dunno about a personal nurse yet, I have to pass the test first."

"Who cares?" Saber crowed, fully awake now. She chugged the rest of her breakfast. "We need to go have fun and celebrate! C'mon, let's go to town and explore and speed on roads and do... legal... things," she finished slowly as she noticed Prime staring at the two from across the room. He grinned and turned away a second later. "Let's invite Jazz!" she yipped, as soon as the tension was gone. "I was messaging him all last night and stuff, he's really nice and I like him, you know what his favorite band is? I do."

Ironhide blinked. _Slag, she goes from Sunstreaker, to Prowl, to Bluestreak all in the same twenty minutes..._

Wild giggled at Ironhide's expression and looked back at Saber with a grin, "No, what is his favorite band?" It would be good information to save for later if she ever needed something to break an awkward silence with him.

"I don't know, I forgot," Saber shrugged and walked off. "To the nasty country roads with ourselves!"

Ironhide gave Prime a slightly weirded out look.

Prime gave a badly hidden snerk and pretended his energon was immensely fascinating.

Wild couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, I'm sure you knew… So… are we meeting up with Jazz or what?" She took Saber's comments in a stride and grinned at her superior officers. They would learn in time.

"Yep, he's already outside. I think he might be a werewolf because he's outside a lot and he said he loves night time and full moons," Saber nodded. "Don't werewolves melt in sunlight though?"

"Um… I wouldn't know. I think werewolves are restricted to humans," Wild snorted, "Full moons are pretty…"

"Whatever," Saber shrugged and wandered outside. Jazz was waiting for them and smiled as the headed over to him. "Hey guys," he greeted them. "So... doesn't Wild need to study?"

"No," snorted Saber. "She's smarter'n me."

Jazz snickered. "Like that says a lot," he teased. Saber huffed and tossed some sand at him. Jazz laughed and ducked away, then turned away and pulled a face at Saber. "Aw, Saber-cakes..." he whined.

Saber pinned her antenna back. "Don't call me that." she muttered as her cooling fans kicked on for a few seconds.

"Well, he already called me Zippy, I think you deserve a nickname too Saber," Wild teased, and then turned to Jazz, "I can study after a little while anyway. Might as well have some fun."

Jazz grinned and nodded. "Sounds good to me," he replied. "Let's go Saber-Cake," he smirked and zipped away in his alt. mode a second later as Saber tore after him, cursing him from here to the moon. Jazz just laughed.

Wild laughed and followed the two as they ended up playing a quick game of keep away, which mostly had Jazz driving for his life and Saber yelling after him. Once they reached the city limits though, they calmed down and Jazz gave them a bit of a tour. Wild enjoyed it and finally decided to stay at the park to study. She claimed it was quieter there and she could concentrate better. Saber ran around with Jazz some more, sending random pictures of badly dressed humans and whatever they drove by back to Wild after that. Eventually they decided to return back to base, as they still had work to do and couldn't afford to waste too much time.

Suddenly, a low rumble was heard high above them as a jet flew over. Then the jet began to circle, seeming to follow Saber and Jazz toward the base.

"Hey!" Jazz yelped at the jet.

"Ugh…" Saber groaned, "Not this guy again." She sighed and pulled off the road with Jazz, both prepared to fight.

Instead of attacking, the jet made a slow decent and transformed before he landed easily in his bi-pedal mode.

"Wait, I don't want to fight," the blue jet held up his hand, both empty of any weapons.

"Says the mech with subspace the size of Mexico," Saber snipped, as she quickly transformed and took an experimental step forward. Jazz hung back, most likely messaging back to base. He was definitely trying to smother a snicker.

Thundercracker snorted, a flicker of acknowledgement in his red optics, "I want to join the Autobots. I'm sick of this war." He slowly set his weapons down on the ground, showing he wasn't going to hide anything in his subspace.

Saber hurried forward and subspaced the weapons. "Oh really," she replied sarcastically. She moved around to his back and forced a panel off. After a second of searching she found what she was looking for. "I don't know if this hurts but I'm disabling your weapons and flight," she warned Thundercracker before she severed a few wires.

Jazz winced and looked away.

Thundercracker jerked slightly, a faint pained sound coming from his vocalizer before he spoke, sounding as if he were clenching his teeth, "I suppose it's necessary."

Saber simply nodded as she carefully closed the panel and proceeded to rifle through his subspace pockets. He didn't have much, just a few tablets, which she took from him, and some old picture file tablets. She let him keep those.

Thundercracker didn't look at all happy to have someone going through his subspace, but he couldn't do anything about it. He winced slightly as he shifted. His wings felt heavier without his flight capabilities.

Jazz continued to stand guard. "So... sick of the war huh?" he asked.

The jet nodded, "The 'Cons are being run by my brother the maniac. We hardly have any energon left, and it's mostly going toward finding more. I never wanted to be on the 'Con side, but when the leader of your trine decides which side, you have to go with them."

"I getcha," Jazz nodded. He smiled faintly, "You done, Sabe?"

Saber nodded as she disconnected a few more wires. "His communications, flight, and weapons are down," she replied, "and his subspace is clear." Saber spent most of her time with the Autobots acting as a guard. She was well acquainted with the rules that had been laid down on how to treat a prisoner.

Of course, one of the rules was 'cause no pain' but that was merrily ignored by most everyone.

"Do you always treat prisoners this well?" Thundercracker asked dryly, already knowing the answer.

"No," Saber grinned and walked around behind him, "Sometimes we're really awful to them. Start walking."

Jazz took up leading Thundercracker while Saber followed along behind. Both had weapons drawn, ready to attack if the strange seeker led them into a trap.

Thundercracker snorted and followed a bit uneasily. He had no way of backing out now, even if Skywarp or Starscream called him back.

Skywarp was already whining over the trine bond, wondering where his oldest brother was and would he please make Screamer stop hitting him? Also, he was hungry and feeling sick and would TC fix that too please?

Thundercracker groaned inwardly and sent over the trine bond that he couldn't come back. Then he gave Screamer a mental smack, which just caused a volley of cursing and insults.

Skywarp continued whining at both of them, which ended abruptly in a sickly pained feeling. He didn't say anything else after that.

Thundercracker winced. Warp didn't deserve to be left with Screamer, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Any resistance on his part, and the Autobots would be on him in a sparkbeat.

There was a long drawn out silence before Warp inched his way back into the bond, explaining that he had purged his tanks and passed out. There was another pause before he cautiously asked where Thundercracker went.

_I left to join the Autobots_. There was no use in mincing any words. Either way, he left, and couldn't come back.

_Huh? Wait... you can join them?_

_Yes, although they've taken away my flight and weapons, they'll give me a chance. _

_Oh... _Skywarp trailed off. Thundercracker could almost hear his processor working. _Well have fun. Tell me how it goes. _He backed out of the bond quickly again. Living with Screamer had made him almost fearful of using the bond, and besides he was sick. It was rude.

"Ten more minutes," Jazz told the two 'bots following behind him. Thundercracker nodded, sighing. He wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but at least it would be safer, and he would probably get actual fuel.

"There it is," Saber muttered after the ten minutes had passed. "We just finished the brig too. Aren't you lucky?"

Thundercracker just stared at the group of 'Bots waiting outside the base. What a welcoming committee. Prime, Ratchet, and Ironhide all made an appearance, along with a little purple femme. _That must be Lunarstorm, the femme Skywarp was talking about the other day. _

He wasn't sure now if he would have ever been prepared to end up in an Autobot brig. _It's much too late now. _He sighed as he walked up to the crowd, accepting his fate as a prisoner on probation.

-0-

Narcolepsy: a chronic sleep disorder, or dyssomnia, characterized by excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks at inappropriate times, such as while at work.

Vivi- Thanks goes out to those who have reviewed, favortited, and alerted this story! :) Reviews make the world go 'round you know.

Athena: sooo... review n stuff. yeah. Sorry this took so long to update. enjoy peeps.


	10. The Sky is Falling

**Vivi- So, its summer now, and its beautiful, which means I'll be able to update more often on here and you get chapters. :D Review please! They make the world go 'round. Enjoy! **

**Athena: seriously. If we stop getting reviews, the world stops spinning, and it will be eternally night somewhere. If you want your days and nights to continue as normally scheduled you had better review. ALSO, I updated my own little drabble corner on Saber's life. It's called adventures in space and you should review on it if you read. Thanks :) I will shut up now.**

**To Catbelle: **

**Vivi: Wild is the one who likes Jazz ;)**

**Athena: Saber likes Jazz as a friend. They joke around together a lot because she, Wild, and Jazz get along as friends.**

The Sky is Falling

"So, we have _Thundercracker_, seeker from the elite trine, in our brig? And he just flew up to you guys and asked to join," Wild had the strangest expression on her face as she quizzed Saber.

"Yeppers," Saber grinned as she continued to stare at said seeker. Thundercracker just turned over and continued to recharge as Saber continued.

"He looks better now doesn't he? We got him some energon and he was so starved he stole four cubes before 'Ratch could wrench him," she grinned. Her antenna slowly pinned back as she took on a more thoughtful expression, "We took all of his data-pads from his subspace too. You should read his personal logs, they're actually... depressing."

"Poor mech…" Wild trailed off with a frown, "What was it about for the most part?"

"Mostly him starving, his little brother whining at him, his older brother beating everyone around... hopelessness," she shrugged and trailed off. The 'Cons were going some seriously hard times.

"I hope we get to keep him," she muttered, sounding like a small child who found a lost dog.

"I think we will… he seems to be a lot healthier from the scans 'Ratch has had me do. Plus he's being very cooperative," Wild nodded, thoughtful.

"How's that studying going, by the way?" Saber asked offhandedly as she pulled out a tablet and started her report for Prime. Wild sent a small grin her way before clicking on her tablet.

"Just a quick review and I should be ready for the test. It's not a horrible section, but I can tell it's to make sure the medics have what it takes," Wild shrugged.

"Huh. Lot's of big words I wouldn't understand?" she asked. She colored the title of her report very decoratively, stalling for time. What to write, what to write... ah! Inspiration.

_My dearest, most respected leader Prime..._

"Most likely. Although there is a list in the back of the words, which is nice," Wild replied as she went through what she had learned.

"Mhm," Saber murmured.

_Seeker fall down. Seeker go boom. Seeker trip on rock. Seeker eat FOUR CUBES ENERGON. Seeker in brig. Seeker deemed healthy. Saber mucho bored-o. _

Wild glanced over at Saber's tablet and just started to laugh softly and add, "That report has bored written all over it."

"Dare me to send it?" she snickered, waving it around teasingly, "Or should I give to the sleeping blueberry in cell two?"

"Either give it to Thundercracker, or try again," Wild snickered, "In fact, let him sleep and try again. I bet this is the first real rest he's had."

Saber grinned and saved her report. "I'll just stuff under his door," she grinned and stood up to do just that. Unfortunately, her arm caught on her other data-pads and sent them clattering and clashing across the floor. Saber squeaked and quickly ducked down to clean them up.

"Did I wake him up?" she asked, checking her data-pads for cracks or scratches.

"Yes…" mumbled a sleepy low voice. Thundercracker blinked drowsily, "Wha…happen'd…"

Wild kept quiet and pretended to study her tablet intently.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep or Ratchet will bean you on the head again," Saber hissed and tossed her data-pads back on the table.

"Read this not now," she muttered and stuffed her silly report under the door of Thundercracker's cell. She took the opportunity to scan her prisoner before hurrying back to her seat.

"Levels are good, he's healed up well," she whispered to Wild.

"Thanks for warning me about that scan," Thundercracker muttered before turning over and curling up as best as he could again. Wild nodded and wrote down the update into Thundercracker's health journal.

"Welcome," Saber replied, "I get to do that whenever I please, seeing as how I'm your guard." She paused, thinking back to when Prime assigned her as Thundercracker's guard.

"Don't turn around and look at me funny again," she added, venting air roughly. He peeked over his shoulder, a bland look on his face, before turning back over.

Saber blinked. "What?" she huffed, straightening her belongings and rearranging things so they sat in less perilous positions, "Wild's orange. Look at her funny."

"You're the one making awkward comments," Thundercracker pointed out without opening his optics. Wild just sat back and watched the exchange with interest.

"Whatever. You're just jealous of me," she replied in a barely teasing tone.

"Jealous of your awkward comments? Not really," his voice came back dryly.

"Go to bed. I can practically hear the recharge protocols coming out of your vocalizer," she snorted and growled a little as she checked the time.

"Slag, I have things to finish. All of you stop distracting me. Popsicle, go melt in a chair somewhere," she waved Wild over to a random chair that was lying in the middle of the floor.

"Hey, what did I tell you about that name?" Wild huffed, but grinned, "No saying that around 'Cons."

"Wasn't my fault," Thundercracker muttered.

Saber responded by making a face at Wild, and then reaching for her stylus to write her report. It rolled off the desk just as she went to grab for it, and continued rolling straight under Thundercracker's door.

Saber looked like someone had kicked her kitten across the room into a boiling vat of acid.

A loud sigh came from the cell as Thundercracker turned over, plucked the stylus up, got up, and went to the door, "I believe this is yours."

Saber sighed and walked over to his cell, antenna pinned back in annoyance.

"I-" Suddenly, there was a loud boom and something fell out of the ceiling and crushed her. She screeched and struggled as the whatever-it-was yelped apologies and then started shouting at someone that they were here now, and hello, and why was he in the brig?

"Warp!" Thundercracker had a half annoyed, half pleased look, "Get off the poor femme."

Wild blinked and quickly sent a message to Prime. _We've got another 'Con in the brig, not sure yet what his intentions are._

_Can you stuff him in a cell? Where's Saber? _Prime sent back.

Warp clawed his way off Saber and leaned heavily against Thundercracker's cell. He smelled sick, and his fans were working over time. In fact, the poor seeker looked like he might kneel over right there. Saber glared at him, as she picked herself up and groaned.

"What the frag, ya idiot?" she snapped.

"Hi," Warp giggled dopily.

Wild rapidly sent back her reply. _Saber is yelling at Skywarp, and he seems very sick. He looks like he's going to fall over any minute now. I'll get him into a cell. _She swiftly nudged him into the cell next to Thundercracker's, frowning.

"Stay in there Warp, I think the base medic will be able to help you," Thundercracker told his dazed brother.

"Hey...," Warp frowned, "I was talkin'..." He blinked, and promptly tripped and fell into the small bed in the cell. Saber huffed and made sure the cell was locked before scanning Warp.

"Geez, Thundercracker, what drugs is he on?" she asked.

"He hasn't had enough energon in a long time. He's had _car fuel_," Thundercracker had a look of disgust on his face.

"Aw…" Wild frowned in sympathy.

"Yeah, well... I'm getting trace amounts of mercury in this scan as well," Saber growled.

"I was kinda hurtin'..." Warp trailed off, "Hurts to warp now. Numbed me good..." He blinked tiredly at a wall, and then smiled as Ratchet came rushing in.

"Hello!" Skywarp chirped.

"I hate drug addicts," Saber muttered, scrubbing at her face with a hand.

Ratchet took one scan and scowled.

Thundercracker sighed and peeked at his brother in the other cell, "Can he get better?"

"Oh, he's getting better," Ratchet muttered darkly. He quickly opened Warp's cell and pulled him out.

"Wild, come with me," he growled. Warp stared at Thundercracker.

"TC," he grinned, "I came to... to join you..." he smiled, head lolling to the side a little, "This shtuffs strong..." He giggled.

Saber sent a wide opticed look to Thundercracker.

"Please tell me he isn't always this stupid," she whined, watching Ratchet try to convince several tons of seeker that walking was an activity he could, in fact, engage himself in. Wild was helping the best she could with her short stature.

"He's not _that _dumb. He's silly, but this stupidity is mostly from the mercury," Thundercracker sighed, shook his head, and muttered, "I'm just glad he's here…"

"Oh, yes, it's wonderful," Saber replied dryly, "Entertain yourself. I better help." She sighed and helped drag Skywarp off.

They passed Ironhide in the hallway.

"What...?" he started. Saber growled.

"He fell out of the sky and ticked everyone off. Bye now," she huffed and was almost crushed as Skywarp flopped over. Luckily, Ratchet caught him. Ironhide suppressed the urge to laugh hysterically.

"Need help?" he asked with just a minor amount of smirkiness.

"Maybe?" Wild huffed, trying to keep Skywarp from crushing her and Saber.

"Alright," Ironhide snickered and easily helped Skywarp up. He made a slight face at how bad the black and purple seeker smelled and quickly turned off his olfactory senses. He assumed the femmes and Ratchet did the same because they weren't gagging.

"Great," Ratchet huffed, "Let's hurry."

Saber sighed and glanced at Wild. "I should be in the brig," she told her, "Good luck with the drunken seeker." Saber nodded.

"Um… thanks…" Wild blinked and continued on with the others to med bay, "Good luck with the blueberry seeker."

"Sure," Saber nodded again and walked off back towards the brig.

_It's too early for this much excitement, _she thought with a sigh.


	11. Easing Up

**Vivi- Enjoy! Review, because they make the world go 'round. ;) **

**Athena: ITTTSS TIMMME FOOOOR responding to reviews.**

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**SilverStarlightXD: (Athena) We try to work humor into our writing, glad it's working (Vivi) Eagerly await no more! Here's another chapter ;) Neat name by the way!**

**Thanks to all that review/subscribe to the story. We try to update as often as we can. We have as much fun writing this as you guys do reading.**

**SUPER LONG CHAPTER GO!**

Easing Up

It had taken a good ten minutes, but Skywarp was finally strapped to a medical table while a machine that was connected to him flushed his systems clean of car fuel and pumped good energon back into him. He whined a bit, and occasionally he would glance around. For the most part though, he seemed too drugged to care what was going on.

Ratchet noted this behavior and sighed. "Saber's drug scan shows he probably ingested a whole medical vial of mercury," he said. Ironhide shook his head and continued to study the purple seeker. "So I'm not needed here? If he's that drugged, he's going to be down for awhile." It wasn't that Ironhide wasn't interested or didn't care but that he had things he needed to do and staring at the 'Con wasn't going to do anything for him.

"Yes, you can go," Ratchet waved him off. "Go back to guarding your precious children."

Ironhide rolled his optics, "Just because I like my guns..." he trailed off as he left. Ratchet grinned slightly but it faded when Prime radioed in. Prime had been on patrol and it was taking longer then he had expected to get back to base, though Prime refused to say why exactly.

Ratchet suspected it was another small animal or unexpected earth material incident. Strangely enough, Prime seemed to collect these incidents while other 'Bots only had one once in awhile. Somehow, Jazz escaped them completely.

"Wild, take care of 'Warp for a few minutes," Ratchet ordered, walking off to his office to sort through files and talk with Prime about Skywarp's condition.

"Yes sir," Wild nodded and studied the seeker. Poor guy. Luckily Ratchet could help. And in time, she would be able to help out a lot more. Just then, a light purple femme hurried in.

"So Wild, I heard the news, is he going to be alright?" Lunarstorm had managed to say all that without a break in her words.

"He'll be alright Luna," Wild grinned at her youngest sister, "It will just take time."

"Oh alright, but doesn't it hurt? Warping to try to capture me a few days ago wasn't the smartest thing. He laughed when I burned my foot you know," Luna went on as Wild just listened with a bemused expression at the excitable Luna.

Warp stuck the tip of his tongue out and crossed his optics to try and see it, completely oblivious.

Luna suddenly noticed and laughed, "He's really out of it isn't he? A full grown seeker, crossing his optics to see his tongue…"

Wild smiled wryly, "Yes, he is."

Warp blinked up at the two femmes slowly. His optics were struggling to adjust to the light in the medbay and he squinted a bit. "Una," he mumbled around his tongue. He struggled a bit, recognizing his friend.

"Hey Warp, you need to get better first, not to mention Ratch' would have my head if you busted something," Luna went over to him with a grin, "Relax and stop struggling."

"Ratchet would have mine too…" Wild muttered in the background.

Warp blinked slowly at Luna and whined. "Hurts," he murmured, squinting at her.

"I know, but in a while you'll feel good as new you know, and you know you shouldn't have eaten that stuff anyway. But, I'm glad you're here so you can get better," Luna smiled, sending a faint purr at him to soothe him.

Warp grinned at her and decided to lick her hand to show how thankful he was that Luna was nice to him.

"Ewww Warp you goof," Luna giggled and made a face, wiggling her hand a bit, "You aren't a turbo-hound!"

"Woof," Warp said, grinning. Suddenly he frowned and looked beyond Luna "Rat," he managed to say, and pointed weakly at Ratchet.

"No he isn't," Luna glanced back to see Ratchet and giggled.

Ratchet sighed. "Luna, I think you brig duty with Saber now, don't you?" he asked as he crossed his arms.

"Go away," Warp giggled, apparently fluent in Ratchet-babble.

"Exactly," Ratchet nodded. "I have a nasty job here, I doubt you want to be here in two minutes..." his optics drifted to a tub full of half-digested, semi-mutated car fuel that had been pulled from Warp's systems.

"I have patrol," Luna grinned, "But I'll go now. See you Warp!" She waved as she sauntered out of med bay.

Wild shook her head and looked to Ratchet, "Do you want me to leave too?"

"Why would I want you to leave?" Ratchet asked. "This is you're job too now. In fact, I'm giving you all the honor of finishing this off." He grinned.

"Oh, thanks, I see how it is," Wild replied dryly, but grinned before doing as he asked. She had the job as a medic in training. This was rather gross though.

"Now, your job is to dump out the old, removed stuff and then I'll remove his lines," Ratchet grinned. "Just pull the bucket out and pour it in the sink," he said, pointing to a sink that was about chest height for Wild and easily accessible for everyone else on base. "Don't spill any."

Wild made a slight disgusted face. She picked up the bucket, and then sighed when she saw how high the sink was.

"Um, Ratchet? Is there a stool around here?" She couldn't help that she was so short, and she really didn't want to risk spilling it.

Ratchet sighed. "Why in the universe would I have a stool? I'm not short. I'm sure there's something for you though. Find a box. Get Ironhide," he snorted. "And by the way, Prime made it back. He'll be in shortly with Jazz. Stupid fragger hit a skunk and flung himself into a ditch out of surprise." He almost grinned, thinking back on the Prime's embarrassment.

"Poor Prime," Wild commented and sighed. She didn't feel like going to find something, so she walked over to the sink and began to dump the stuff in. A little sloshed over the side a bit as she poured. _Scrap._

Ratchet glanced over at Wild. "You're getting it on my floor," he growled as he started to carefully pick the IV lines out of Warps wings and arms.

"I'm sorry!" Wild winced, "I'll clean it up." She should have gotten a box.

"Darn right you're cleaning it up," Ratchet replied, and continued to mutter under his breath about darn kids and making messes and having accidents on _his _floor.

_I said sorry, _Wild thought to herself, huffing. She quickly finished dumping the stuff into the sink and cleaned up the few _drops _that had escaped. Well, okay, maybe more than that, but it wasn't _that _much.

Jazz wandered into medbay halfway through Wild's assignment. "Hey 'Ratch I- Holy! What's that smell?" he exclaimed, looking at Wild. "What the scrap are you dumping down the sink there Zippy? That's worse than Prime!"

"Hey Jazz. It's stomach stuff that Warp shouldn't have eaten," Wild sent a wry smile his direction, and then turned to Ratchet, "What now? Tomato juice for Prime?"

Ratchet finished pulling a last line out of Skywarp before turning around to face the three bots in his medbay. "Well Skywarp is out cold, I think he's taken care of. Why don't you give Jazz his checkup while I... take care of Prime."

Prime mustered as much dignity as he could before replying. "In my defense, it came out of nowhere." Ratchet just snickered and waved him off to a side room. "Use the trainee check up tablet in the last drawer on the right, Wild," he said, and shut the door. Jazz muffled a laugh.

Wild covered her mouth to stop a giggle and quickly trotted over to get the tablet from the drawer Ratchet had indicated. She sighed, pulled it open and went on tiptoe to reach inside. _Why oh why am I so short? _She grabbed the tablet, shut the drawer, and walked back to Jazz. Her fans whirred slightly, as she became a bit nervous.

"I feel fine," Jazz grinned and sat on an empty medical table. "Mostly 'Ratch just checks my scar." He shrugged and glanced down at his stomach, where a scar was visible. It ran jaggedly around his entire middle.

"That was from Megatron… ouch…" Wild said quietly, checking the tablet and working through what she was supposed to do.

"Yeah," Jazz shrugged. It wasn't a huge deal to him. He was alive now, thanks to an Allspark shard, and he was grateful. He didn't care to dwell on the fact though. He glanced over at Skywarp. "So, um... that's impressive. Two-fer-one?" he grinned.

"Huh? Oh, you mean Thundercracker and Skywarp coming?" Wild's fans kicked up a notch, a bit embarrassed. Here she was, giving _Jazz _a checkup, and she had no idea what to say outside of pleasantries.

"That and you have the big purple dope strapped to a table with his tongue flopping out, and he's muttering in his sleep about his best friend Lunarstorm," he snickered. "So am I gonna live?"

"Maybe," Wild grinned, "And… yeah Warp is out of it."

"Maybe?" Jazz whined. "Aw, come on! I have things to do and bots to meet!"

"If you're alive enough to complain about needing to go places, yes you're going to live," Wild snickered, her fans whirring faintly. _Hopefully he doesn't hear that…_

Jazz grinned. "Ah, good, I take over Saber's brig duty when she let's it go. Are you done yet?"

"Oh yeah, you can go," Wild replied with embarrassment. He probably thought she was silly and absentminded.

"Alright! See, I like you better'n than Ratchet. I ask if I can go and he smacks me and makes me sit still longer out of spite!" Jazz teased as he walked off. _Though 'Ratch usually does more than poke me once or twice. I'm not complaining though!_

Wild grinned and snickered slightly as she watched him go for a moment, and then turned back to her work. _Speaking of Thundercracker, I wonder how Saber is doing…_

-0-

Thundercracker chirped a bit in his sleep and curled up a bit more with a sigh within his cell in the brig.

Saber glanced at him and then scanned through a report Ratchet had sent in. "Hey," she called over to him and tossed a pebble at his cell.

"What…?" Thundercracker onlined one optic after a few seconds.

"Got your brother's report back. Looks like he's gonna be fine, but Ratch' is keeping him for a week to make sure he's not gonna have a reaction to the mercury or anything," Saber replied. She sent her reports off to their specific destinations and started on dismantling Thundercracker's sound cannon.

At one point a crazy prisoner had rigged a time bomb inside his gun. After that particular incident, which left three 'Bots seriously injured and killed two 'Con prisoners, all guns were dismantled and checked over. Anything suspicious was to be reported and handed off to someone who could take care of it properly.

"…Please be careful with that…" a slight worried look crossed his face. The precious sound cannon was his one piece of equipment that he wouldn't let anyone else handle. He had it since he was old enough to be a soldier. It was a piece of him that had saved his life numerous times.

"I'm being perfectly careful, T.C.," Saber muttered. Thundercracker made a strange face at the nickname. That was certainly unexpected.

"Geez, this thing brings back memories..." she trailed off, thinking back to previous battles, "You know, I don't think I ever got shot with this thing. I always ran up to you and you just smacked me on the head and knocked me out. Like... every single time. I never laid a claw on you."

"I didn't want to kill femmes. Even if they were on the other side," Thundercracker muttered, and then went quiet.

"Well that's um... nice of you," Saber muttered. She then began reassembling the gun. Considering she killed a lot of seekers and she was obviously a seeker-hybrid, she found Thundercracker's statement surprising.

"Thanks," Thundercracker grimaced a bit. He was still watching his sound canon carefully, concerned.

Saber yawned, her spikes pinning back as she did so. Thundercracker seemed awfully attached to a weapon. He was a 'Con though. They were known for not having a lot of personal items. It might be the only thing he actually owned, aside from his pictures. Those might even be banned to prevent too much emotion in the troops though, and were more than likely illegal. She would ask him sometime.

Her antenna twitched and her vents hitched a little. "Stop," she muttered. Her vents completely died and she stiffened, trying to force them to work.

Thundercracker switched his attention from his canon to Saber as he noticed she seemed to be having a problem. Saber coughed and her vents made an awful grating sound. Slowly, she completely stiffened and her optics dimmed.

"Saber? Saber?" Thundercracker was ready to message Ratchet in a sparkbeat.

Saber didn't respond. She coughed once and then fell on the floor, silently twitched and flailing. Her mouth remained stiffly open and her air vents grated every few seconds. Her foot kicked her desk, creating a loud smashing sound and scooting it closer to Thundercracker. Startled, Thundercracker quickly sent an urgent message to Ratchet.

Ratchet came running in a moment later, swearing and knelt by Saber, "Saber? Saber, respond."

When Saber didn't respond, he swore again and gave her a small shot when he managed to hold one of her arms still. Saber slowed a bit in her flailing but she was still stiff and unresponsive. This continued for a couple minutes before she fell limp and her vents kicked on.

Thundercracker watched silently, uncertain. This seemed to be something that had happened before, from Ratchet's reaction. What caused it thought? He settled and continued to study the situation.

"She's fine," Ratchet sighed. "This... happens to her. She has seizures," he said shortly. He scanned Saber again relaxed when everything came back normal.

"From…the red optic?" Thundercracker asked softly with uncertainty. He had heard of programmed Decepticon parts having some sort of virus in them, just in case some unlucky Autobot needed a part.

"Yes," Ratchet replied. Saber's optics returned to their normal intensity and she sighed. Slowly, she sat up and rubbed her head, then her antenna. They had gotten beaten around a bit.

"Saber, are you ok?" Ratchet asked.

Saber nodded and heaved herself back into her chair. "I'm good," she muttered, and then leaned forward and grabbed her desk. She managed to drag it back to its original position fairly easily. "That was a little one," she added, more for Thundercracker's benefit. Ratchet nodded, and stood up.

"Message me if you're feeling worse later," he told Saber, and then left. Saber just sighed and stared at the surface of her desk, apparently drained of energy.

"Glad you're okay," Thundercracker mentioned quietly before settling on his berth again. Something suddenly clicked in his mind. A memory of a little red femme across the street tickled his mind.

"Saberquake…"

"That's my name," Saber said, poking the desk absently and cataloguing things that hurt in her body now.

"I lived across the street from you," he said, recognition in his crimson optics.

"I wouldn't remember," Saber said. "I lost a lot of my memory from before it got my 'Con optic."

"Oh… I'm sorry," a strange sort of loss hit Thundercracker. She had once been a good friend of his, but when she moved, he lost contact. Now she wouldn't remember any of it.

Saber sighed, feeling the same way. She didn't know what she was to this mech, but it would be amazing if she could remember. Her memories consisted for the most part of her little brother Night, most likely because he was such a major part of Saber's life before her 'Con optic. She barely remembered her parents, much less her house or anything previous to her brother's existence. Saber explained this to Thundercracker quietly.

"I see… you were once my best friend," was all he could say. How could he explain all the things they had done? Playing at the park, sharing an energon-type ice cream at the fair, and playing with his toys, all lost to her memory.

Saber met Thundercracker's gaze and studied him for a moment. "Seriously...?" she asked. "Why... what did we do together? How old were we?" Now she was curious. She could only glean so much off of Wild, who she had become friends with later on at school. To learn about her younger years... This was a treat. _Thank Primus for kindhearted, blue Seekers, _she thought.

"Fairly young, sparkling up to early school days," a faint smile played on his face as he began to tell a few of the memories he had of her.

Saber listened intently, carefully filing the stories away. She had had the little remote controlled seeker trine toys that had been so popular and she and Thundercracker spent hours playing with them. They had both tackled the energon ice-cream mech that walked down their street every afternoon. One time, they had even gone to the park and scared themselves silly by crawling around in a little cave they had found (it was apparently full of cyber-spiders at towards the end). For a moment she was sad she couldn't remember these things herself, but she was just as quickly cheered at the fact that she had found a way to retrieve the stories. "T.C.," she asked, and then paused, "The nickname is okay right?"

A grin crossed his face, "You used to call me that too."

"I'll take that as a yes then," Saber smiled, red optic dimming ever so slightly, while the blue lightened a bit. "Thanks for telling me T.C.. I appreciate it."

"No problem. I had some good times there. Seeing you reminded me of them," he grinned slightly. Imagine that. He had found an old friend by coming over to the Autobots, and his brother had come too. This would turn out alright after all.

-0-

**Athena: chapter used extreme length!**

**It was... we aren't sure.**

**Vivi: Eight pages in 14 point font in Times New Roman. :P**

**Athena: ...does that qualify for super effective? Ok no one cares. * Shoves Vivi offstage and runs after ***

**-0-**

**Athena: We didn't think we were going to quit either and we really enjoyed writing and making our subscribers happy, but we just realized it wasn't going to work out one day. We don't want to bore you with our personal lives. :P**

**Special Apology for Catbelle: Ugh we really do want to keep writing, but at the same time it took forever and we had to coordinate and bleh... We offer you some golden and delicious apology, deep fried in shame.**

**Vivi: We don't want to leave readers hanging as to how it all would have ended up, so here is a basic summary of what happens in the future to Wild and Saber:**

**Thundercracker is let out of the brig, Saber is assigned as his guard.**

**After Warp recovers from eating car fuel, he is put in the brig.**

**Both are let out after a while**

**Saber/Thundercracker become a pair, along with Jazz/Wild, later on, Warp/Luna**

**all get into various amounts of trouble and adventures and start small families**

**Soundwave takes over the 'Cons and turns all the 'Cons on earth over to the 'Bots. (Because he's a sneaky fragger. He tricks the whole 'Con army. Seriously.)**

**The 'Cons that are programmed (can't be converted) are euthanized, and the others are… *cough* convinced to join.**

**The high-risk 'Cons are turned into sparklings via a large explody Wheeljack device (Starscream, Astrotrain, Barricade, Vortex), who are adopted by various families and more adventures follow. (Starscream goes to TC/Saber, Astrotrain to Wild/Jazz, Barricade goes to Electrostar, and Vortex is given as penance to his brother, Swindle. By this point Saber already has a sparkling, Lightstream. Around that time Warp decides he likes Luna and they have a kid, Firestorm. Little twerp. Later, Wild has Soul, and Electrostar and Prowl get together. Barricade likes Prowl for some reason but refused to admit to liking his new little sister Scatterstar. Everyone knows he does anyway.)**

**Soundwave converts and is happy to embarrass his children in a parental way (especially rumble/frenzy)**

**Prime discovers his girlfriend (Wavebreaker) (not Elita-1 GASP)**

**Saber decides she likes tarter sauce. TC is not amused.**

**Warp discovers ramen noodles. A revolution is promptly started. **

**Ratchet is not Willy Wonka, despite the fact he has all the ingredients to make energon candy in his medbay. Warp decides he likes top hats. (on himself, not Ratchet)**

**Prowl gets over his fainting fits with careful therapy.**

**Autobots grow in numbers (both by recruits and sparklings)**

**All ride off into the sunset.**

**Shockwave returns to earth and takes back most of the 'Cons and restarts the war.**

**Saber becomes a mini-seeker (she's a hybrid so she can go either way depending on upgrades)**

**Prowl decides _Dancing with the Stars _is ok to watch. On weekends. When his bonded (Star) and his daughter (Scatterstar) aren't around.**

**Night and Shadow (Saber's bro and Star's kid) return to earth. They try to overcome their 'Con tendencies and join Warp's ramen revolution.**

**Wheeljack blows up stuff, pairs with Click (another scientist). Invents energon potato chips. Gets a puppy. Names it Boomer.**

**This is about where the Dodge series begins. **

**Breeze is sometime around Dodge series. **

**Cars, Planes, and a Big Problem is sometime after Dodge series. **

**Athena: My gosh. Now I really don't want to write this monster. **

**Vivi: There you go, no worries on missing something, and this is the whole back story to the rest of the stories. ;)**

**Athena: If any of this sparks ideas, go ahead and write them (as long as you aren't taking our characters Saberquake, Lightstream, Soul, Electrostar, Wildstrike, Lunarstorm, Click, Scatterstar, Firestorm... anyone we missed you don't recognize). Note us so we can see what you do :)**


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